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«i 



THE CHARACTER 



OF 






THOMAS JEFFERSON, 



AS EXHIBITED IN 



HIS OWN WRITINGS 



BY THEODORE DWIGHT. 




BOSTON: 
WEEKS, JORDAN & COMPANY, 

No. 131 Washin^on Street. 

1839. 



E3i 



Entered according to act of Congress in the year 1839, by 

WEEKS, JORDAN & COMPANY, 
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. 



Harden & Kimball, Printers, 

No. 3 School Street. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

Introductory remarks — Diiferent opinions of Mr. Jefferson's char- 
acter- -His Correspondence left for publication — Causes of the 
Federalists' opposition to Mr. Jeiferson — Mr. Jefferson long in 
public employment — Was opposed to the Constitution — Corres- 
pondence on that subject — Attachment to Revolutionary France 
— Report on Commerce — Madison's Resolutions — Intended to 
turn the trade of the United States from Great Britain to France 
— The sentiments of Federalists justified by events — Mr. Jeffer- 
son's confidence in Bonaparte — Change in his feelings in 1814. 

CHAPTER II. 

The Federalists opposed to Mr. Jefferson because he used the gov- 
ernment patronage to promote his own and his party's interests 
— Case of the removal of the New Haven collector — Letter to 
the New Haven merchants — Collector not removed for want of 
integrity, capacity or fidelity — Attempt to fix the charge of polit- 
ical intolerance upon Mr. Adams — If it lay against any person, 
it was Gen. Washington — Doors of honor, &c., burst open by 
Mr. Jefferson's election — Origin of the doctrine that a change 
of administrition involves the principle of a change of subor- 
dinate ofiicers — His election considered by him as a revolution 
— All executive officers viewed by him as executive agents — 
Proved by a letter to J. MuiiDe. 

CHAPTER III. 

FedcTalists opposed to Mr. Jefferson because of his known oppo- 
sition to an independent Judiciary — Letter to Ritchie, December 
25, 1820— To Melish, January 1813— To Nicholas, December, 
1313 — To Barry, July, 1822 — Importanct of Judicial Indepen- 



IV. CONTENTS. 

dence — Language used by Mr. Jeffersoa on ihe subject — His 
opposition to Courts manifested in the prosecution of Burr — Re- 
view of Burr's alleged conspiracy, and the proceedings of the 
government in relation to it — More attempted lo be made of it 
than the facts would warrant — Nothing said about it by the Ex- 
ecutive, after the Message at the opening of the session, until 
January 22 — Article published on the same subject in the Rich- 
mond Enquirer — Burr's arrest and trial — Correspondence relat- 
ing to the trial — Attack upon Judge Marshall's character — Mr. 
Jefferson objects in this affair political — Charges the Federalists 
with favoring Burr — Correspondence on the subject — Hostility 
to Judge Marshall on the ground of Burr's acquittal. 

CHAPTER IV. 

Federalists opposed Mr. Jefferson on the ground of his unsound 
and dangerous opinions respecting the constitution — Correspon- 
dence with Mrs. Adams — Friendship for Mr. Adams — Paying 
Callendar — His acquaintance with Callendar — Discharge of per- 
sons convicted under the sedition law, because he conceived the 
law a nullity — His sentiments respecting the power of the execu- 
tive to decide on the constitutionality of laws. The executive 
and judicial powers equal in this case — The sincerity of Mr. Jef- 
ferson's professions of friendship for Mr. Adams — Publication 
of Paine's Rights of Man — Mr. Jefferson's letter to general 
Washington in relation to it. 

CHAPTER V. 

Mr. Jefferson's opinion that one generation of men cannot bind 
J another, individually or collectively, to the fulfilment of obliga- 
tions — Letter to James Madison on the subject, dated Septem- 
ber, 1789 — to doctor Gem — to J. W. Eppes — to J. Cartwright, 
dated June, 1824 — Examination of his principle — Mr. Jefferson 
a mere partizan in politics — Letter to F. Hopkinson, March, 
1789 — Correspondence respecting the operations of the federal 
government, 1790, 1791 — Origin of the Ana — Monarchy — Con- 
troversy of those days between the advocates of kingly and re- 
publican government. 



CONTENTS. V- 

CHAPTER VI. 

Annapolis Convention, 1786— Difference of opinion in that body 
between a republican or kingly government — Account of that 
Convention from Pitkin's History — From the Life of Jay — At- 
tempts of the friends of a kingly government, at the Convention, 
to prevent the formation of a republican government, for the 
purpose of introducing a monarchy — The charge shoAvn by facts 
to be unfounded — Only five of the thirteen States represented— 
His knowledge of the Convention derived from hearsay — No 
proof of it has ever been adduced — The same charge made 
against the same party at the Convention which framed the 
Constitution in 1787 — The Ana utterly unworthy of credit — Mr. 
Jefferson's enmity against A. Hamilton, its origin and its object 
— The charge of monarchical principles intended to promote 
his own interests. 

CHAPTER VII. 

Mr. Jefferson had no regard for the constitution if it stood in the 
way of his interests — Treaty-making power — Opposed to Mr. 
Jay's treaty with Great Britain — Attempts to prevent its ratifi- 
cation — Doctrine advanced by him regarding the power of the 
representatives over treaties — Letters to Monroe and Madison — 
Gallatin's and Madison's opinions — Livingston's resolution in 
the House of Representatives — Arguments used on both sides 
in debate — Resolution adopted by House of Representatives — 
Mr. Jefferson's sentiments opposed to the constitution, of which 
he seemed to be sensible — His sentiments contradicted in the 
case of the treaty with France, in 1831 ; but urged against that 
treaty by members of the French legislature — Livingston at this 
time minister at Paris, and obliged to act in opposition to the 
sentiments avowed by him on Mr. Jay's treaty. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Mr. Jefferson a secret enemy of general Washington — Ambitious of 
being considered as the greatest political character of his country 
— Willing to concede to Washington pre-eminence as a military 
officer, but not as a statesman — Formed a French party soon 
after his return from France — Accused the federalists of British 



VI. CONTENTS. 

partialities — Aristocratic and monarchical propensities — Procla- 
mation of neutrality— Strongly opposed by the French party- 
Extracts from newspapers concerning it — Attacks upon the 
executive as the enemy of France — Philip Freneau and the 
National Gazette — Conversation between general Washington 
and Mr. Jefferson respecting that paper— His enmity to Wash- 
ington more manifest after the Whisky insurrection broke out 
— President's speech to congress, November, 1794 — Allusion to 
democratic societies as the sources of it — Mr. Jefferson's opin- 
ion of insurrections, November, 1787 — Sentiments respecting 
the] Whisky insurrection — Democratic societies and the Cincin- 
nati — Judge Marshall's account of the insurrection, and its sup- 
pression — Letter to Mazzei — to James Madison — Effects of 
general Washington's popularity — John Jay's corruption — Let- 
ter to Aaron Burr respecting Washington ! 

CHAPTER IX. 

Mr. Jefferson afraid to attack general Washington's character 
openly — Letter to W. Jones, January, 1814, a specimen of his 
insidiousness — Great body of republicans think of Washington 
as he does — His belief that we should eventually come to some- 
thing like the British constitution had some weight in his adopt- 
ing levees, &x. — Pains taken by the federalists to make him 
Triew Jefferson as a theorist, &c. — Jefferson never saw Wash- 
ington after the former left the state department, otherwise these 
impressions would have been dissipated — Letter from Jefferson 
to M. Van Buren, June, 1824 — Notice of charges in a work 
published by T. Pickering — Letter to Mazzei — Not a word in 
that letter that would not be approved by every republican in 
the United States — Not a word in that letter about France — By 
forms of British government was meant levees, &c. — Subject of 
ceremonies at Washington's second election referred to heads of 
departments — Jefferson and Hamilton thought there was too 
much ceremony — The phrase, " Samsons in the Jield,'^ Tciesmt the 
society of the Cincinnati — Jefferson says general Washington 
knew this — Never had any reason to believe that general Wash- 
ington's feelings towards him ever changed — Washington a sin- 
cere friend to the republican principle — Knew Jefferson's suspi- 



CONTENTS. Vll. 

cions of Hamilton — After the retirement of his first cabinet, gene- 
ral Washington fell into federal hands — Eemarks on this letter. 

CHAPTER X. 

The society of Cincinnati could not have been meant by the phrase 
" Samsons in the field " — The language of the Mazzei letter, as 
published in Jefferson's Works, absurd — Jefferson's last parting 
with general Washington — The time of his death, as stated in 
the letter to Van Buren not true — Federalists, pretending to be 
Washington's friends, did what they could to sink his character 
— The measures of his second administration not imputable to 
him, but to his counselors — Not approved by the republicans — 
Answers of the houses to his speech when about to retire, op- 
posed by Giles — Judge Marshall's account of the feelings of the 
republican party upon the ratification of the British treaty — 
Letters to Melish, W. Jones, and John Adams — Jefferson says 
general Washington was not a federalist — No truth in the asser- 
tion that Washington was not a federalist — Letter to Jay, May, 
1796 — ^-Letter to Jefferson, July, 1796— No correspondence after 
this letter appears on Washington's books with Jefferson — Let- 
ter to La Fayette, December, 1798 — to Timothy Pickering, Jan- 
uary, 1799— To P. Henry, January, 1799— Letters to H. Lee— 
[Bache's and Freneau's papers, and western insurrection] — Let- 
ter to J. Jay — Washington not a republican in the sense of Jef- 
ferson — Washington a federalist — Letter to B. Washington, 
May, 1799 — Jefferson's letters intended for history. 

CHAPTER XI. 

Mr. Jefferson's last parting with general Washington at Mr 
Adams's inauguration, March, 1797 — Washington's faculties 
impaired — He had become alienated from Jefferson — general 
Washington's powers of mind never stronger than at the period 
alluded to — The origin, character, and object of Jefferson's Ana 
— Persons employed in collecting materials for the work — Story 
of Sir I. Temple, Hamilton, King and Smith — Story of governor 
Clinton and a militia general — Conversation between Langdon 
and Cabot, reported by Lear — Story from Baldwin and Skinner 
— Jefferson's account of the convention of 1787 — Account not 



Vlll. CONTENTS. 

entitled to credit — The constitution made by federalists — Op- 
posed by Jefferson's republicans — The account of both conven- 
tions untrue — Not a delegate from the eastern states at Annapo- 
lis — Assumption state debts part of a system of corruption — 
Scheme Hamilton's, Washington ignorant of the plan — Hamil- 
ton a monarchist — Conversation at Jefferson's dinner table — 
Conversation in August, 1791, between Jefferson and Hamilton 
about the constitution — Hamilton's opinion of it — Practice of 
noting do\\Ti private conversations insidious — Such evidence un- 
worthy of credit — Conversation between Jefferson and Wash- 
ington, October, 1792 — Jefferson informed Washington that 
Hamilton was a monarchist — Character of Hamilton by judge 
Marshall — Washington's letter, accepting Hamilton's resigna- 
tion. 

CHAPTER XII. 

Mr. Jefferson's policy to render the federalists unpopular by stig- 
matizing them as monarchists — In his letter to Mazzei he char- 
ges general Washington with being a monarchist — John Adams 
originally a republican — Essex federalists — No proof adduced 
to support the charge — Truth to be ascertained by the measures 
of the government while under their control — Judiciary — Pay- 
ment of the national debt — Hamilton's funding system adopted 
— National bank — Opposed by the republicans — Its constitution- 
ality established by the supreme court and acknowledged by 
congress— Not monarchical — The true ground of opposition its 
being owned and managed by federalists — Establishment of a 
navy — Its necessity and utility universally admitted — Mr. Jef- 
ferson's opposition to the British treaty and wish to screen Ge- 
net, evidence of his attachment to France — Jefferson discovered 
nothing monarchical in the federalists until after his party was 
formed — Letter to Carmichael, March, 1791 — Sentiments in the 
Ana in 1818 — His greatest apprehension of monarchy arose 
from the levees, &c. — All ground of fear had been removed be- 
fore his Ana were written. 

CHAPTER XIII. 

The federalists had no confidence in Mr. Jefferson as a politician 



CONTENTS, IX. 

— His election a revolution — To ascertain the nature of that 
revolution his messages to congress must be examined — No act 
alluded to in his messages to congress as having a monarchical 
tendency — No original national measures recommended by him 
but gun-boats and dry docks — Letter to'Nicholson on gun-boats — 
Committee' under Madison on gun-boats — Secretary of navy's re- 
port to that committee — Correspondence between general Wash- 
ington and Nicholas, &c., respecting John Langhorne. 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Mr. Jefferson's feelings on his return from France in 1789 — Found 
here a preference for kingly government prevalent — Mr. Jef- 
ferson an ambitious man — Called himself a republican and his 
opponents monarchists — Monarchy talked of at dinner parties — 
Attacks upon Hamilton — Asserts that Hamilton introduced a 
draft of a constitution to the convention for a monarchy— Letter 
from Hamilton to T. Pickering on his proposition for a constitu- 
tion — No monarchical feature in it — The charge of monarchical 
principles in the federalists traced by Jefferson to the conven- 
tions of 1786 and 1787 — Judge Marshall's notice of the conven- 
tion of 1787 — Names of some of the principal members of that 
body — Mr. Jefferson's artful manner of establishing his claim 
to a republican character — Letter to R. M. Johnson — Conversa- 
tion with general AVashington — Character of the early federal- 
ists — Great courage necessary to attempt the destruction of gen- 
eral Washington's character. 

CHAPTER XV. 

Alien and sedition laws — Reasons for passing the alien law — Copy 
of the act — Zealously opposed by Mr. Jefferson — His opinion of 
it as expressed in his letters — Urges Pendleton to write against 
it — Copy of parts of the sedition law — His opinion of it as ex 
pressed in a letter to Mrs. Adams — Petitions to congress for the 
repeal of the laws — Report of committee in the house of repre- 
sentatives — Letter to Madison, February, 1799, giving an ac- 
count of the proceedings in the house on the report — Law re- 
specting alien enemies— Still in force— Extract from Tucker's 
Life of Jefferson — His object in opposing the law to court popu. 



X. CONTENTS. 

larity, and render the federalists unpopular — Letter from gener- 
al Washington to Spotswood, on the alien and sedition laws — 
Letter toB. Washington — Prosecutions under the sedition law- 
Persons convicted pardoned by Jefferson — Prosecutions in Con- 
necticut — Case of Rev. Dr. Backus — Letter from Jefferson to 
W. C. Nicholas, professing ignorance of these cases — Facts to 
show that he was acquainted with them. 

CHAPTER XVI. 

The Federalists believed Mr, Jefferson insincere and hypocritical — 
Professed great friendship for John Adams in a letter to Mrs. 
Adams, in 1804— In a letter to general Washington, in 1791, he 
charges Mr. Adams with apostacy to monarchy — The friendly 
intercourse between them not interrupted by this apostacy, but 
by Mr. Adams's appointments to office at the close of his admin- 

~ istration— Apparent that Jefferson had, upon coming into the 
secretary of state's office, laid his plan to place himself at the 
head of the government — Hamilton, being a more formidable ob- 
stacle to his ambition than Adams, became the object of peculiar 
animosity — Correspondence between general Washington and 
Jefferson and Hamilton, in August, 1792, respecting dissensions 
in the cabinet — Washington's letter to Jefferson — Letter to Ham- 
ilton — 3Ir. Jefferson's answer, September, 1792 — Reasons for em- 
ploying Freneau — Objections to the constitution, that it wanted a 
bill of rights, &c. — Says Hamilton's objection was, that it wanted 
a king and house of lords — Hamilton made great exertions in the 
formation and adoption of the constitution — Jefferson did nothing 
— Hamilton's answer to Washington's letter, August, 1792 — 
Washington's confidence in Hamilton never shaken by Jeffer- 
son's attempts to that end — Jefferson never appealed to the coun- 
try, as suggested in his letter. 

CHAPTER XVII. 

Mr. Jefferson made use of unworthy means to gain popularity — 
Alleges that he had more confidence in the people than general 
Washington had ; which was the only point on which they dif- 
fered — He assumed the title of " Friend of the People " — Dress- 



CONTENTS. ' XI. 

ed plainly — affected unassuming manners — professed never to 
have written a word for newspapers — He urged others to write 
— In one instance he wrote himself, but proposed to procure 
somebody to father it — Tells Madison he must take up his pen 
in reply to Hamilton — Letter to E. Pendleton, Jan. 1799, urges 
him to write on the negociation with France — Letter to Madison, 
and calls upon him to write — The federalists viewed Jefferson 
as an unbeliever in Christianity — Letter to Dr. Priestly, JMarch, 
1804 — Letter to Dr. Rush, April, 1803 — estimate of the merits 
of the doctrines of Jesus, compared with the others — Letter to J. 
Adams, August, 1813— Letter to W. Short, April, 1820— Jef- 
ferson a materialist J Jesus on the side of spiritualism — Paul the 
first corrupter of the doctrines of Jesus — Letter to Short, Aug. 
1820 — The God of the Jev/s cruel, vindictive, capricious, and 
unjust — Letter to J. Adams, April, 1823 — The three first verses 
of John, 1st chapter, mistranslated — Jefferson not a Christian — 
doubtful whether he believed in a God — His translation of John 
1st absurd — Recapitulation of the subjects in the work — Conclu- 
sion. 



Ekrata. — Oa page 64, line 20, read, least color; 65, 5th line 
from bottom, judice ; 11 , 2d line from bottom, insert instead of 
after the word that ; 95, line 5, Tea.d,Jiftt/ years ; 103, line 5, read 
are called ; 106, first line, read address ; 116, 2d line from bottom 
and on pa.s^es 187, and 193, read Backers paper; 117 and 121, read 
gulped; 121, 2d line from bottom, read changed; 123, 4th line 
from bottom, read 1795 ; and on pages 125, 144, 158, read Mazzei ; 
305, line 10 from bottom, read Tapping Reeve ; 308, line 18 from 
top, read David M. Randolph. 



CHARACTER OF JEFFERSON. 



CHAPTER I. 

introductory remarks — Diflferent opinions of Mr. Jefferson's char- 
acter — His Correspondence left for publication— Causes of the 
Federalists' opposition to Mr. Jefferson — Mr. Jefierson long in 
public employment — Wets opposed to the Constitution — Corres- 
pondence on that subject — Attachment to revolutionary France 
— Report on Commerce — Madison's Resolutions — Intended to 
turn the trade of the United States from Great Britain to France 
— The sentiments of Federalits justified by events — Mr. Jeffer- 
son's confidence in Bonaparte — Change in his feelings in 1814. 

Nearly forty years have elapsed since the first election 
of Thomas Jefferson to the office of president of the Uni- 
ted States. That event was then considered by him, and 
is still claimed by his partizans, to have been a revolution 
in the political condition of this country scarcely if at all 
inferior in importance to that which severed the United 
States from their allegiance to the government of Great 
Britain. There ought to be a good foundation on which 
to rest such a claim as this. If it had been advanced ori- 
ginally for the mere purpose of promoting the views and 
interests of a political party, it might be suffered to pass 
out of remembrance with many other things of a some- 
what similar character that are now nearly forgotten. But 
2 



14 THE CHARACTER OF 

a new generation of men have grown up since the period 
above alluded to, who know very little of the characters, 
principles or services of those who formed the constitution 
of the United States, or of the policy which was adopted 
and pursued by the men who organized the government, 
and, for the first twelve years of its existence, influenced 
and directed its operations. Mr. Jefl^erson and his friends 
claim the merit of having accomplished ''the revolution of 
1801 " with as much confidence as if such an event had 
actually been achieved, and had been brought about by their 
own personal exertions. Federalists and federalism are 
used by them as terms of reproach, applicable, in their 
opinion, to a large number of men and a series of meas- 
ures which, it would seem from their language, deserve 
nothing short of unqualified reprobation. Without trou- 
bling themselves to examine the characters of the persons 
alluded to. or to discuss and understand the nature and 
tendency of their system of measures, they arrive at their 
object by a much shorter and easier route. In order 
to avoid the trouble of examination, they content them- 
selves with stigmatizing both with opprobrious names 
which stupidity itself can learn to repeat, and which, when 
once got by heart, answer all the purposes that their artful 
inventors had in view when they introduced them to pub- 
lic use. And although the federalists, as a political party, 
have long ceased to act, or even to exist, such has been the 
effect of this peculiar kind of political machinery, and the 
despotic influence of party spirit, that the term has been 
and is still relied upon, by every modification of the par- 
ty which has held the power of the general government, 
for nearly forty years past — from March, 1801, to the 
present time — as the source of their own popularity and 
the maintenance of their supremacy and power over the 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 15 

affairs of the nation. A political engine which, under 
such a variety of circumstances, and in the hands of so 
many different individuals, could be safely relied upon for 
such important consequences, must have been the device 
of no ordinary mind ; and when it is added that it origi- 
nated with Mr. Jefferson, those who are well acquainted 
with his character will cease to wonder ; and those who 
are not, may gain some insight into it from the following 
pages. 

It is very doubtful whether, in the whole extent of polit- 
ical history, a more singular and extraordinary personage 
can be found than Thomas Jefferson. Flattered, admired, 
and extolled by his partizans, as the greatest of statesmen 
and patriots — viewed by his opponents as an artful and 
dangerous intriguer, visionary in his notions, unsound in 
his principles, selfish in his feelings and opinions, and 
ambitious in his views and projects — no person can be 
surprised to hear that the sentiments entertained of his 
principles and character, by the parties which then prevail- 
ed in the country, were widely and essentially different 
from each other. The federalists formed their estimate of 
both from the facts which fell under their observation while 
he was engaged in the active concerns of the government, 
and from evidence which they occasionally derived from 
other sources. His immediate friends took much for grant- 
ed in forming their opinions of his merit. They gave him 
full credit for the services he had rendered during the rev- 
olutionary struggle, particularly as the author of the de- 
claration of independence. On the strength of these ser- 
vices, without understanding precisely their nature, extent 
or importance, they claimed much in favor of his talents 
and patriotism ; and, as he was as necessary to their in- 
terests as they were to the success of his ambitious pro- 



16 THE CHARACTER OF 

jects, they required but little positive proof of what they 
might expect from his future services and influence. In 
such a state of things, it is not to be wondered at that his 
opponents should become, in the warm confl.icts of politi- 
cal parties, objects of the greatest animosity to his devoted 
friends and admirers. 

It so happened that Mr. Jefferson, at his death, left be- 
hind him very voluminous collections of letters, addressed 
to his multiplied correspondents, and other written docu- 
ments, which, since his death, have been published to the 
world by his grandson, to whose care they were confided. 
It is to be presumed they were selected, prepared and ar- 
ranged by himself, and that his representative had nothing 
to do but to place them, according to that arrangement, be- 
fore the public. The internal evidence in favor of this 
supposition is very strong. But whether the fact was so, 
or they were left to the discretion of the editor, is of no 
importance in the view which will here be taken of their 
contents. Their authenticity is neither denied nor doubt- 
ed ; and it is, therefore, of no moment to the world at large 
by whose agency they were placed before them. In this 
work, so far as may be necessary for the accomplishment 
of the object which the author has in view, they will be 
freely scanned ; and the main purpose of the writer will 
be to show, that the estimate which the federalists formed 
of his principles and character, political, moral and reli- 
gious, was not merely justifiable but strictly correct — that 
his works show that all and more than all they said of him 
was true. 

Mr. Jefferson spent a large part of a very long life in 
public employment. In the course of his political career, 
he held many important offices, and among them that of 
chief magistrate of the United States. Previously to the 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 17 

commencement of the French revolution, he was appoint- 
ed to the office of minister plenipotentiary of the United 
States to the court of France, where he remained until the 
year 1789, when he returned to this country, and from 
general Washington received the appointment of secretary 
of state under the newly formed national government. 
Before that time, he had been generally considered as a 
man of learning and talents, thoroughly versed in the po- 
litical affairs of the nation, and sincerely devoted to its 
welfare and prosperity. There was, moreover, an extra- 
ordinary degree of popularity attached to his name, from 
the circumstance that he was chairman of the committee 
who reported the declaration of independence ; and it was 
understood that he was the principal draftsman of that fa- 
mous document. Before the formation of the present fed- 
eral government, political parties, like those which have 
since divided and distracted the country, were unknown. 
Local views and interests operated upon the minds of men 
in various cases, and gave rise to differences of opinion 
upon different subjects ; but the Union had never before 
been divided into two great political parties, as it was 
very shortly after the new government was formed and 
organized. This division, however, took place very soon 
after its organization, and the names of federalists and an- 
ti-federalists soon came into common use. But as the lat- 
ter term indicated opposition to the constitution, Mr. Jef- 
ferson, with an adroitness that marked all his movements 
as the head of a party, soon devised the more captivating 
title of republican for his adherents to adopt as their watch- 
word and countersign. This new designation was well 
conceived for the purpose which he had in view when he 
threw it out as a bait for his followers. It held out the 
idea of a sincere and devoted regard for the general polit- 
2# 



18 THE CHARACTER OF 

ical feeling and sentiment of the country, and, by implica- 
tion at least, charged those to whose principles and meas- 
ures he was opposed, with the heinous offence of aristo- 
cratic or monarchical predilections and propensities. This, 
it will be perceived, was an ingenious mode of securing 
popularity to himself, and at the same time of rendering 
his opponents suspected and odious. And it answered all 
the purposes which its author had in view — it established 
him, in popular opinion at least, as the friend, the " man of 
the people ; " and in the end it destroyed the political in- 
fluence and credit of those who framed and supported the 
constitution and government. Its more remote effects have 
been alluded to. It remains to this day, notwithstanding 
the changes of men and the vicissitudes of parties and 
politics, the talisman which enables those who use it to 
govern and control the public councils of the nation. 

One cause for Mr. Jefferson's unpopularity with the fed- 
eralists was his well known opposition to the constitution 
of the United States. At the time when the convention 
met by which it was formed, and until after its adoption 
by the states, he was in France as minister plenipotentia- 
ry from this country. It was well understood here, that 
he had imbibed many of the wild and visionary notions of 
the early revolutionists of that nation ; and when he came 
to see the constitution which was prepared, and was about 
to be submitted to the people of the United States for 
their approbation, he began to discover many serious ob- 
jections to it. His letters to his American friends and 
correspondents, contain abundant evidence of his dislike to 
that instrument. In page 64 of his biography of himself, 
prefixed to the first volume of his memoirs, published 
since his death, he says — " This convention (which 
framed the constitution) met at Philadelphia on the 25th 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 19 

of May, 1787. It sat with closed doors, and kept all its 
proceedings secret until its dissolution on the 17th of Sep- 
tember, when the results of its labors were published all 
together. I received a copy, early in November, and read 
and contemplated its provisions with great satisfaction. 
As not a member of the convention, however, nor probably 
a single citizen of the Union, had approved of it in all its 
parts, so I, too, found articles which I thought objectiona- 
ble. The absence of express declarations ensuring free- 
dom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of the per- 
son under the uninterrupted protection oiihe habeas corpus, 
and trial by jury in civil as well as in criminal cases, ex- 
cited my jealousy ; and the re-eligibility of the president 
for life I quite disapproved." This memoir appears to 
have been written in January, 1821, when Mr. Jefferson 
was 77 years of age, and many years after he had retired 
from public life. 

In a letter to John Adams, (vol. 2, page 265,) dated 
Paris, November 13, 1787, he says — "How do you like 
our new constitution ? I confess there are things in it 
Avhich stagger all my dispositions to subscribe to what 
such an assembly has proposed. The house of federal 
representatives will not be adequate to the management of 
affairs, either foreign or federal. Their president seems a 
bad edition of a Polish king. He may be elected from four 
years to four years for life. Reason and experience prove 
to us that a chief magistrate, so continuable, is an office 
for life. When one or two generations shall have proved 
that this is an office for life, it becomes, on every succes- 
sion, worthy of intrigue, of bribery, of force, and even of 
foreign interference. It will be of great consequence to 
France and England to have America governed by a 
Galloman or an Angloman. Once in office, and possess- 



30 THE CHARACTER OF 

ing the military force of the Union, without the aid or 
check of a council, he would not be easily dethroned, even 
if the people could be induced to withdraw their votes 
from him. I wish that at the end of four years they had 
made him forever ineligible a second time. Indeed, I 
think all the good of this constitution might have been 
couched in three or four new articles to be added to the 
good, old, and venerable fabric, which should have been 
preserved even as a religious relique." 

In a letter to James Madison, dated Paris, December 
20, 1787, (vol. 2, 272,) [after enumerating several things 
in the constitution which he likes,] he says — " I will now 
tell you what I do not like. First, the omission of a bill 
of rights, providing clearly and without the aid of sophism, 
for freedom of religion, freedom of the press, protection 
against standing armies, restriction of monopolies, the 
eternal and unremitting force of the habeas corpus laws, 
and trials by jury in all matters of fact triable by the laws 
of the land, and not by the laws of nations." 

" The second feature I dislike, and strongly dislike, is 
the abandonment, in every instance, of the principle of 
rotation in office, and most particularly in the case of the 
president. Reason and experience tell us that the first 
magistrate will always be re-elected, if he may be re-elect- 
ed. He is then an officer for life. This once observed, it 
becomes of so much consequence to certain nations to 
have a friend or foe at the head of our affairs, that they 
will interfere with money and with arms. A Galloman 
or an Angloman will be supported by the nation he be- 
friends. If once elected, and at a second or third election 
out-voted b}'- one or two votes, he will pretend false votes, 
foul play, hold possession of the reins of government, be 
supported by the states voting for him, especially if they 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 21 

be the central ones, lying in a compact body themselves, 
and separating their opponents ; and they will be aided by 
one nation in Europe, while the majority are aided by 
another. The election of a president of America, some 
years hence, will be much more interesting to certain na- 
tions of Europe than ever the election of a king of Poland 
was. Reflect on all the instances in history, ancient and 
modern, of elective monarchies, and say if they do not 
give foundation for my fears; the Roman emperors, the 
popes while they were of any importance, the German 
emperors till they became hereditary in practice, the kings 
of Poland, the deys of the Ottoman dependencies." 

After a series of observations upon the subject, he says 
— "I own I am not a friend to a very energetic govern- 
ment. It is always oppressive. It places the governors^ 
indeed, more at their ease at the expense of the people. 
The late rebellion in Massachusetts has given more alarm 
than I think it should have done. Calculate that one re- 
bellion in thirteen states in the course of eleven years, it 
is but one for each state in a century and a half. No 
country should be so long without one." 

In a letter to E. Carrington, dated Paris, December 21, 

1787, he says — " As to the new constitution, I find my- 
self nearly a neutral. There is a great mass of good in 
it, in a very desirable form ; but there is also, to me, a 
bitter pill or two." 

In a letter to general Washington, dated Paris, May 2, 

1788, he says — " I had intended to have written a word 
on the subject of the new constitution, but I have already 
spun out my letter to an immoderate length. I will just 
observe, therefore, that according to my ideas, there is a 
great deal of good in it. There are two things, however, 
which I dislike strongly. 1. The want of a declaration 



22 THE CHARACTER OF 

of rights. I am in hopes the opposition in Virginia will 
remedy this and produce such a declaration. 2. The 
perpetual re-eligibility of the president. This I fear will 
make that an office for life first, and then hereditary. I 
was much an enemy to monarchies before I came to Eu- 
rope. I am ten thousand times more so since I have 
seen what they are. There is scarcely an evil known in 
these countries which may not be traced to their king as 
its source, nor a good which is not derived from the small 
fibres of republicanism existing among them. I can further 
say with safety, there is not a crowned head in Europe 
whose talents or merits would entitle him to be elected a 
vestryman by the people of any parish in America. How- 
ever, I still hope that before there is danger of this change 
taking place in the office of president, the good sense and 
free spirit of our countrymen will make the changes neces- 
sary to prevent it." 

In a letter to Francis Hopkinson, dated Paris, March 
13, 1789, after a somewhat extended view of his opinion 
respecting the constitution and of his political sentiments, 
he says — " These are my sentiments, by which you will 
see I was right in saying, I am neither a federlist nor anti- 
federalist ; that I am of neither party, nor yet a trimmer 
between parties." 

Many more passages of a similar character might be 
cited from his writings to show that he was on many ac- 
counts opposed to the constitution. As a number of his 
letters got abroad, his sentiments respecting ii became 
known, and the public were extensively informed of the 
opinions which he entertained concerning it. This is a 
sufficient vindication of the federalists — who were the 
authors of the constitution and were mainly instrumental 
in procuring its adoption, and when the government was 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 23 

formed under it, of establishing the great system of politi- 
cal measures which has been continued in operation until 
the present time — for viewing him with feelings of doubt 
and suspicion when he came to take an active part in the 
affairs of the nation. They thought it would require all 
the talents, public spirit, and energy of its friends, to estab- 
lish it and put it into operation. They, therefore, very 
naturally felt strong reluctance at the idea of placing it 
under the control of a man who was well known to be 
opposed to many of its important principles and provisions. 
Another source of apprehension on the part of the fed- 
eralists towards Mr. Jefferson, was a firm persuasion that 
he entertained an inordinate attachment to revolutionary 
France. Having been minister from this country to that 
from the summer of 1785 to the close of the year 1789, 
he had lived in the midst of all the preparatory measures 
for the French revolution. Alluding to this period, he 
says — " I had left France in the first year of her revolu- 
tion, in the fervor of natural rights. and zeal for reforma- 
tion. My conscientious devotion to these rights could not 
be heightened, but it had been aroused and excited by 
daily exercise.'"^ Naturally enthusiastic and visionary, 
fond of theories, and entertaining Utopian notions of so- 
ciety and government, it is scarcely possible that with such 
a peculiar cast of mind he should not have imbibed the 
wildest sentiments of that distracted era. That such was 
the fact, the following passage in a letter to J. Madison, 
dated Paris, January 30, 1787, furnishes striking evidence. 
" Nothing should be spared on our part to attach this coun- 
try to us. It is the only one on which we can rely for sup- 
port under every event. Its inhabitants love us n)ore, I 
think, than they do any other nation on earth. This is 

* Jefferson's Writings, vol. 4, p. 446, (Ana). 



24 THE CHARACTER OF 

very much the effect of the good dispositions with which 
the French officers returned." Again (in his Ana, vol. 
4, page 496,) he calls " France the only nation on earth 
sincerely our friend." Feelings of this description he 
carried into public life when he entered upon the office o^ 
secretary of state under the new government. As early 
as February, 1791, he was instructed " to make a report 
as to the nature and extent of the privileges granted to 
American commerce, as well as the restrictions imposed 
upon it by foreign nations ; and also as to the measures, 
in his opinion, proper for the improvement of the com- 
merce and navigation of the United States."* 

This report, as was well known at the time, gave rise 
to the celebrated commercial resolutions submitted to the 
House of Representatives of the United States in January, 
1794. " The substance of the first, says Mr. Pitkin, was, 
that the interest of the United States would be promoted 
by further restrictions and higher duties, in certain cases, 
on the manufactures ^r\di 7iavigation of foreign nations. 
The additional duties were to be laid on certain articles 
manufactured by those European nations which had no 
commercial treaties with the United States.^^ This was 
carried by a small majority. " The last of the resolutions 
declared, that provision ought to be made for ascertaining 
the losses sustained by American citizens from the opera- 
tion of particular regulations of any country contravening 
the laws of nations ; and that these losses be reimbursed, 
in the first instance, out of the additional duties on the 
manufactures and vessels of the nation establishing such 
regulations."! 

The discussion of these resolutions showed, that their 

* Pitkin's Pol. and Civ. Hist. U. S., vol. 2, 406. 
t Ibid, 407. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 25 

object was political as well as commercial, and it was ap- 
parent that the effect of them would be to transfer the 
trade of the United States from Great Britain to France. 
In the course of it, a proposition was offered to the house, 
by a member of the name of Clark, which declared that 
until the British government should make restitution for 
all losses and damages sustained by the citizens of the 
United States from British armed vessels, contrary to the 
law of nations, and also until the western posts be given 
up by the British, all commercial intercourse between the 
United States and Great Britain, so far as respects the 
products of Great Britain and Ireland, should be prohibit- 
ed.'"^ Had this measure baen carried into effect, it is easy 
to see that it would have turned the mercantile concerns 
of this country away from Great Britain and directed 
them immediately to France — the object which Mr. Jef^ 
ferson was undoubtedly desirous of accomplishing ; and in 
a letter to Tench Coxe, dated May 1, 1794, he expresses 
his decided approbation of Mr. Clark's proposition of cut- 
ting off all communication with the nation which has used 
us so atrociously. Although his professed object in the 
adoption of this measure was to punish the injustice of 
Great Britain towards the United States, no reasonable 
person can doubt that his approbation of the measure 
arose from the consideration that it would have a direct 
tendency to accomplish the great object he had recom- 
mended to Mr. Madison in January, 1787, that " nothing 
should be spared on our part to attach France to us." 

With a full belief that Mr. Jefferson entertained this 
strong partiality to France, it is not to be wondered at 
that sober, reflecting men, of sounder principles and more 
correct views, should withhold their confidence from him, 

* Pitkin's Pol. and Civ. Hist., vol. 2, p. 412. 
3 



26 THE CHARACTER OF 

or that they should look with apprehension to the effects 
of his political influence and conduct. It was perfectly 
well known, in this country as well as in Europe, that not 
only the political but the moral and religious character of 
the French people had become wild, extravagant and de- 
praved. During the earliest stages of their revolution, all 
the restraints of government were cast off, the rabble ob- 
tained the entire ascendency, and were guilty of the most 
terrible excesses ; and Paris became a scene of riot, blood- 
shed, and every kind of atrocity which human ingenuity 
could devise and savage barbarity could execute. Power 
was seized by the most sanguinary villains and cut throats, 
and no person's life, against whom their vengeance was 
directed, was safe for a day, and scarcely for an hour. In 
short, that city for years exhibited Mr. Jefferson's favor- 
ite spectacle of " the tempestuous sea of liberty." At the 
same time, Christianity was scouted from the nation, the 
grossest infidelity and the greatest profligacy of principle 
and conduct prevailed through the community, and the 
great body of the people became ferocious atheists. That 
those who considered the state of things in revolutionary 
France with dread and abhorrence should be apprehen- 
sive of evil consequences from the influence and principles 
of a man who had witnessed the beginning of these evils 
in that country and had returned to this, with his mind 
excited by the fervor of reformation, and disposed to at- 
tach this nation to that as the only one on which we 
could rely for support, is not surprising. 

Those who were on the stage of life at the time Mr. 
Jefferson returned from France, and had opportunity not 
only to witness the commencement of the French revolu- 
tion but to see its progress and its close, will be able to 
determine how far the federalists were justifiable in enter- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. /i/ 

taining suspicions of the soundness and practical utility of 
his political principles. The experiment has decided the 
question so conclusively that there is not, at the present 
time, the least possible room for dispute or cavil. Its ca- 
reer began in civil commotions, in riots and massacres at 
home, in wantonly shedding the blood of each other; and 
it soon extended itself to other countries, and in a short 
time involved Europe in the most sanguinary, destructive 
and desolating wars that were ever known in that portion 
of the globe since the introduction of civilization and the 
establishment of Christianity. Notwithstanding the ob- 
vious tendency of the revolutionary measures of that coun- 
try, and the lawless spirit which marked all their proceed- 
ings, at home and abroad, such was the wild, enthusiastic 
character of his mind, that he was never thoroughly cured 
of the revolutionary mania until the revolution itself was 
brought to a close by the establishment of a military des- 
potism. In a letter to Tench Coxe, dated May 1, 1794, 
after he had left the office of secretary of state, he says, 
" Your letters give a comfortable view of French affairs, 
and later events seem to confirm it. Over the foreign 
powers I am confident they will triumph completely ; and 
I cannot but hope that that triumph, and the consequent 
disgrace of the invading tyrants, is destined, in the order 
of events, to kindle the wrath of the people of Europe 
against those who have dared to embroil them in such 
wickedness, and to bring, at length, kings, nobles and 
priests, to the scaflfolds which they have been so long del- 
uging with human blood. I am still warm whenever I 
think of these scoundrels, though I do it as seldom as I 
can, preferring infinitely to contemplate the tranquil 
growth of my lucerne and potatos." In the following 
year, in a letter to W, B. Giles, dated April 27, 1795, he 



28 THE CHARACTER OF 

says, "I sincerely congratulate you on the great prosperities 
of our two first allies, the French and Dutch. If I could 
but see them now at peace with the rest of their continent, 
I should have little doubt of dining with Pichegru in Lon- 
don, next autumn ; for I believe I should be tempted to 
leave my clover for a-while, and go and hail the dawn of 
liberty and republicanism in that island." 

Republicanism seemed to be, at the outset, ihe great 
charm which drew towards France Mr. Jefferson's most 
enthusiastic affections, as well as admiration. But when 
that farce was ended, and the government had assumed a 
totally different form, being nothing less than a severe and 
unqualified despotism under the name of a consulate, such 
was his ardor in favor of that nation that he appeared to 
transfer his confidence, as well as his esteem, to the dic- 
tator who controlled its aflfairs. In a letter to Robert R. 
Livingston, dated November 4, 1803, during his first pe- 
riod as president, when speaking of the Louisiana treaty, 
he says, " Mr. Pichon, according to instructions from his 
government, proposed to have added to the ratification a 
protestation against any failure in time or other circum- 
stances of execution on our part. He was told, that in 
that case we should annex a counter protestation, which 
would leave the thing exactly where it was; that this 
transaction had been conducted, from the commencement 
of the negociation to this stage of it, with a frankness and 
sincerity honorable to both nations, and comfortable to the 
heart of an honest man to review ; that to annex to this 
last chapter of the transaction such an evidence of mutual 
distrust was to change its aspect dishonorably for us both, 
and contrary to truth as to us ; for that we had not the 
smallest doubt that France would punctually execute its 
part; and I assured Mr. Pichon that I had more confidence 



THOMAS JEFFERSON, 29 

in the word of the first consul than in all the parchment 
we could sign." 

How long Mr. Jefferson continued to entertain feelings 
of this sort for Bonaparte may perhaps be ascertained by 
what follows. After the conqueror of Europe had himself 
been conquered and dethroned, and banished to the island 
of Elba, in the Mediterranean, in a letter to John Adams, 
dated July 5, 1814, the tide of admiration seems to have 
changed with the change of fortune, and he speaks of him 
in a very harsh and unkind manner, as follows : — " Shall 
you and I last to see the course the seven-fold wonders of 
the times will take ? The Attila of the age dethroned, 
the ruthless destroyer of ten millions of the human race, 
whose thirst for blood appeared unquenchable, the great 
oppressor of the rights and liberties of the world, shut up 
within the circuit of a little island of the Mediterranean, 
and dwindled to the condition of a humble and degraded 
pensioner on the bounty of those he has most injured. 
How miserably, how meanly, has he closed his inflated 
career! What a sample of the bathos will his history 
present ! He should have perished on the swords of his 
etiemies under the walls of Paris. 

" But Bonaparte was a lion in the field only. In civil' 
life a cold-blooded, calculating, unprincipled usurper, with- 
out a virtue; no statesman, knowing nothing of commerce, 
political economy, or civil government, and supplying ig- 
norance by bold presumption. I had supposed him a great 
man until his entrance into the Assembly des Cinq Cens, 
eighteenth Brumaire, (an. 8.) From that date, however, 
I set him down as a great scoundrel only. To the won- 
ders of his rise and fall, we may add that of a Czar of 
Muscovy, dictating, in Paris, laws and limits to all the 



30 THE CHARACTER OF 

successors of the CsBsars, and holding even the balance in 
which the fortunes of this new world are suspended." 

This extract contains facts enough, under Mr. Jeffer- 
son's own authority, to justify the federalists for the opinion 
they formed of Bonaparte's character, the objects which 
he, and of course the nation which supported him in pur- 
suing those objects, had in view, the dangers which they ap- 
prehended from his supremacy, and the controling influ- 
ence which he would be able to exert, after having sub- 
jugated Europe including Great Britain, over the affairs 
and interests of this country. The federalists viewed 
Bonaparte throughout his career as an Attila — a "scourge 
of God," more nearly resembling his great predecessor 
than any other personage mentioned in modern history ; 
and it was for a close adherence to him and his measures 
that they considered Mr. Jefferson as a dangerous man to 
be placed over the government of their country. They 
looked with strong apprehensions to the consequences of 
electing a man to the office of chief magistrate who was 
friendly to " the ruthless destroyer of ten millions of the 
human race ; " to one " whose thirst for blood appeared 
unquenchable," and who was " the great oppressor of the 
rights and liberties of the whole world " — " a cold-blooded, 
calculating, unprincipled usurper, without a virtue." Mr. 
Jefferson says he " had supposed him to be a great man 
until his entrance into the assembly," in the eighth year ; 
" from that date he set him down as a great scoundrel 
only." 

The federalists having obtained an earlier insight inta 
his real character, differed essentially from Mr. Jefferson 
concerning him. They did not form their opinions of 
him on the comparatively trifling circumstance of his con- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 31 

duct on the occasion alluded to. They had but little con- 
fidence in the characters and conduct of the principal lead- 
ers in the revolutionary conflict, and in none less than him. 
And the farther the revolutionists advanced in their tre- 
mendous career, the more strongly were their early opin- 
ions and sentiments, respecting both the men and their 
objects, confirmed ; and they were not under the necessity, 
at so late a period, of acknowledging their error and alter- 
ing their whole course of thought, as well as of conduct, 
with regard lo them. 

And yet, on the simple ground that the federalists had 
formed these correct sentiments respecting revolutionary 
France and Frenchmen at an earlier period than himself, 
Mr. Jefferson, for many years, stigmatized them as Anglo- 
men, friends of monarchy, aristocrats, enemies of freedom, 
republicanism and the rights of men. By pursuing this 
course, and rousing up popular prejudice and vulgar pas- 
sion, he succeeded in depriving them of the public respect 
and confidence, and in elevating himself to the head of the 
government. 



32 THE CHARACTER OF 



CHAPTER II. 

The Federalists opposed to Mr. Jefferson because he used the gov- 
ernment patronage to promote his own and his party's interests 
— Case of the removal of the New Haven collector — Letter to the 
New Haven merchants — Collector not removed for want of in- 
tegrity, capacity or fidelity — Attempt to fix the charge of polit- 
ical intolerance upon Mr. Adams — If it lay against any person, 
it was Gen. Washington — Doors of honor, &c., burst open by 
Mr. Jefferson's election — Origin of the doctrine that a change 
of administration involves the principle of a change of subordi- 
nate officers — His election considered by him as a revolution — 
All executive officers viewed by him as executive agents — 
Proved by a letter to J. Munroe. 

The federalists were opposed to Mr. JefTerson on the 
ground that he made use of the patronage of the govern- 
ment to promote the views and interests of himself and his 
party, without any reference to the public welfare. His 
immediate predecessor in office, John Adams, had appoint- 
ed Elizur Goodrich collector of the port of New Haven, 
Conn. This gentleman performed the duties of his office 
with strict fidelity to the government, and in a manner 
entirely acceptable to the inhabitants and merchants of that 
place. Upon hearing of his removal, the latter united in 
a respectful but frank and decided remonstrance against 
the measure, expressing in the fullest manner their appro- 
bation of his character and conduct, and requesting that he 
might be restored to his place. In his reply to this appli- 
cation, Mr. Jefferson, without suggesting the slightest 
charge against Mr. Goodrich as an officer of the govern- 
ment, places his removal from office solely on political 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 33 

ground. He says, " The removal, as it is called, of Mr. 
Goodrich, forms another subject of complaint. Declara- 
rations by myself in favor of political tolerance, exhorta- 
tions to harmony and affection in social intercourse, and 
to respect for the equal rights of the minority, have, on 
certain occasions, been quoted and misconstrued into assu- 
rances that the tenure of offices was to be undisturbed. 
But could candor apply such a construction ? It is not 
indeed in the remonstrance that v^re find it ; but it leads to 
the explanations which that calls for. When it is consid- 
ered that, during the late administration, those who were 
not of a particular sect of politics were excluded from all 
office ; when, by a steady pursuit of this measure, nearly 
the whole offices of the United States were monopolized 
by that sect ; when the public sentiment at length declared 
itself, and burst open the doors of honor and confidence to 
those whose opinions they more approved ; was it to be 
imagined that this monopoly of office was to be continued 
in the hands of the minority ? Does it violate their equal 
rights to assert some rights in the majority also ? Is it 
political intolerance to claim a proportionate share in the. 
direction of the public affairs ? Can they not harmonize 
in society unless they have everything in their own 
hands ? If the will of the nation, manifested by their va- 
rious elections, calls for an administration of government 
according with the opinions of those elected ; if, for the 
fulfilment of that will, displacements are necessary, with 
whom can they so justly begin as with persons appointed 
in the last moments of an administration, not for its own 
aid, but to begin a career at the same time with their suc- 
cessors, by whom they had never been approved, and who 
could scarcely expect from them a cordial co-operation? 
Mr. Goodrich was one of these. Was it proper for him 



34 THE CHARACTER OF 

to place himself in office without knowing whether those 
whose agent he was to he^ would have confidence in his 
agency ? Can the preference of another as the successor 
of Mr. Austin be candidly called a removal of Mr. Good- 
rich ? If a due participation of office is a matter of right, 
how are vacancies to be obtained ? those by death are few, 
by resignation none. Can any other mode than that of 
removal be proposed ? This is a painful office ; but it is 
made my duty, and I meet it as such. I proceed in the 
operation with deliberation and inquiry, that it may injure 
the best men least, and effect the purposes of justice and 
public utility with the least private distress ; that it may 
be thrown as much as possible, on delinquency, on op- 
pression, on intolerance, o?z anti-revolutionary adherence 
to our enemies. 

" The remonstrance laments that a change in the ad- 
ministration must produce a change in the subordinate 
officers ; in other words, that it should be deemed neces- 
sary for all officers to think with their principal. But on 
whom does this imputation bear ? On those who have 
excluded from office every shade of opinion which was 
not theirs, or on those who have been so excluded ? I 
lament sincerely that unessential differences of opinion 
should ever have been deemed sufficient to interdict half 
the society from the rights a?id the blessings of self-gov- 
ernment^ to proscribe them as unworthy of every trust. 
It would have been to me a circumstance of great relief 
had I found a moderate participation of office in the hands 
of the majority. I would gladly have left to time and 
accident to raise them to their just share. But their total 
exclusion calls for prompter corrections. I shall correct 
the procedure ; but that done, return with joy to that state 
of things when the only questions concerning a candidate 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 35 

shall be, Is he honest ? Is he capable ? Is he faithful to 
the constitution ? " 

It will be borne in mind that Mr. Goodrich was not re- 
moved from office in consequence of any imputation upon 
his integrity, his capacity, or his fidelity. In each of 
these particulars he was not only above reproach, but even 
above suspicion. Indeed it was not Mr. Jefferson's object 
to inquire into these traits of his character. He acknowl- 
edges that he had departed from the state of things in 
which such an inquiry could properly be made ; and at 
the close of his letter, devoutly expresses the hope that, 
when he has corrected the errors of his predecessors, 
Washington and Adams, in selecting candidates and 
making appointments, he shall return with joy to that 
state, and make those qualifications the sole objects of in- 
quiry. It is, then, to be considered as indisputable, that 
in removing Mr. Goodrich and appointing his successor, 
Mr. Jefferson had no regard to the qualifications of integ- 
rity, capacity, and fidelity to the constitution, but was ac- 
tuated by different motives and another spirit; and it 
must necessarily follow that his objects were political, per- 
sonal and selfish ; and his remarks in attempting to vin- 
dicate his course, are founded altogether upon that idea. 

He says, that during the late administration, those who 
were not of a particular sect of politics were excluded from 
office. This attempt to confine the charge of intolerance 
to Mr. Adams's administration is a mere trick. Mr. 
Adams was in office but four years. Probably he left the 
offices generally as he found them, occupied by those who 
had been placed in them by general Washington. It is 
certain he made very few removals ; and it may be said 
with safety, that not one was made for political reasons. 
If there was anything sectarian then in the system of ap- 



36 THE CHARACTER OF 

pointments to office, it was chargeable more to general 
Washington than lo Mr. Adams. But as general Wash- 
ington's popularity was much greater than Mr. Adams's, 
and the country had hardly ceased mourning for his death, 
with characteristic cunning Mr. Jefferson charges the se- 
clusion of his own sect from office to the account of Mr. 
Adams. That sect, however, had scarcely a name or an 
existence when general Washington's administration com- 
menced ; and when the first appointments under the gov- 
ernment were made, reference could not have been had 
to political distinctions. A state of things existed in which 
the inquiry respecting the integrity, capacity and fidelity 
to the constitution, could be made and was made ; nor 
was it necessary to return to that practice, as it had not 
been departed from. Mr. Jefferson, then, on the score of 
intolerance, had no ground of complaint, against either 
Mr. Adams or General Washington. This brings his 
case down to one of a mere political character. He had 
been elected president by a party, and was under the ne- 
cessity of rewarding his partizans with offices and in- 
comes; and here may be found the origin of the doctrine 
of " contending for victory and dividing the spoils." New 
York, with all its claims to practical distinction in this re- 
spect, is not entitled to the merit of having invented this 
system. 

But, saj^s Mr. Jefferson, " when the public sentiment at 
length declared itself, and burst open the doors of honor 
and confidence to those whose opinions they more approv- 
ed, was it to be imagined that this monopoly of office was 
still to be continued in the hands of the minority ? Does 
it violate their equal rights, to assert some rights in the 
majority also ? " He obviously goes upon the ground, that 
the great political struggle which terminated in his own 



THOMAS JEFt'ERSON. 37 

election — -an event of so much importance in his opinion, 
as well as in that of his warm partizans, as to be dignified 
with the character of a revolution — was a m.ere conflict 
for office. The rights and the blessings of self-govern- 
ment of which he speaks as belonging to the majority, 
must of necessity be the emoluments of office, because the 
great contest through which they had just passed had put 
them in possession of the administration of the govern- 
ment. All the rights which they could claim beyond this 
were what, in more modern and more simple language, 
are called the " spoils of victory." Again — Mr. Jefferson 
says, " If the will of the nation, manifested by their vari- 
ous elections, calls for an administration of government 
according with the opinions of those elected ; if, for the 
fulfilment of that will, displacements are necessary, with 
whom can they so justly begin as with persons appointed 
in the last moments of an administration, not for its own 
aid, but to begin a career at the same time with their suc- 
cessors, by whom they had never been approved, and who 
would scarcely expect from them a cordial co-operation." 
Here the idea is first started under our government, that 
a change in the administration involves the principle of a 
thorough change in subordinate offices — or in other words, 
that the great revolution in eighteen hundred meant noth- 
ing more than to make Mr. Jefferson president that Tie 
might have it in his power to bestow offices upon his parti- 
zans. It can imply nothing more nox less than this ; for 
the administration of the government, so far as the execu- 
tive branch of it is concerned, cannot depend upon the 
political principles or sentiments of the collectors of the 
customs, or any other subordinate class of ministerial of- 
fice holders. The idea, therefore, that the election of a 
new chief magistrate calls upon the various subordinate 
4 



38 THE CHARACTER -OF 

officers to assist in an administration according with the 
political opinions of that officer, as suggested in the sen- 
tence just quoted, is absurd. Such an idea cannot exist, 
because those officers have nothing to do with the admin- 
istration of the government. Their duties are the same 
uncler all administrations ; and they consist entirely and 
exclusively in the faithful collection of the imposts on 
merchandize, and the punctual payment of the money re- 
ceived from that source into the treasury. These duties 
were strictly performed by Mr. Goodrich ; and, of course, 
he did everything which the laws required of him as a 
faithful officer of the government, notwithstanding the re- 
sult of the election which had recently occurred, by which 
Mr. Jefferson had been placed at the head of that govern- 
ment. In what sense, then, is the expression, when 
speaking of Mr. Adams's appointments, from whom the 
new administration could not expect a cordial co-operation, 
to be understood ? It must mean something beyond the 
performance of the legitimate duties of the office of col- 
lector, because those duties were strictly and punctiliously 
performed by that gentleman. Co-operation with the ad- 
ministration, then, must necessarily have intended, in Mr. 
Jefferson's understanding of the phrase, services devoted to 
the promotion of his own personal and political interests, 
to the furtherance of his selfish views and projects, and the 
continuance of the predominance of the party of which he 
was the avowed and acknowledged head. And this expla- 
nation of his language is rendered clear and indisputable 
by what immediately follows in this extraordinary letter. 
" Mr. Goodrich," he says, " was one of these " — that is, 
one of the persons appointed by Mr. Adams, from whom 
he, that is Mr. Jefferson, could not expect a cordial co- 
-operation. And he then significantly asks — " Was it 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 39 

proper for him to place himself in office without knowing 
whether those whose agent he was to be would place con- 
fidence in his agency ? " Without stopping to notice the 
absurdity of the suggestion, that Mr. Goodrich had placed 
himself in office, it is of more importance to ascertain 
what is meant by the expression whose agent he was to be. 
It has already been remarked, that Mr. Goodrich's lawful 
business was to collect the revenue at New Haven and pay 
the monies received by him into the national treasury. In 
doing this he was the agent of the government, not of the 
executive. The imposts upon merchandize were laid by con- 
gress, not by the executive; and the money received from 
them was to pay the debts and expenses of the government, 
not for the profit or benefit of the executive branch of the 
government. Nothing, therefore, beyond the faithful col- 
lection and punctual payment of the receipts of his office 
could have been legitimately required of him ; this was the 
extent of his agency : and if anything further was exacted 
or expected from him, it must have been intended for sel- 
fish or party purposes, and of course must have been illegal- 
ly demanded. For such purposes, men of integrity, capaci- 
ty and fidelity to their constitutional duties were removed 
from office by Mr. Jefferson, for the sole object of intro- 
ducing others into their places who would become execu- 
tive agents, possess executive confidence, perform executive 
services, and promote the views and interests of an indi- 
viduaV or a party, instead of confining themselves and 
their labors to the more circumscribed and legitimate circle 
of constitutional requirements. 

Who can fail to trace to this pernicious source the cor- 
rupt and disgraceful practise which, at a subsequent period, 
so extensively prevailed, of forcing every office-holder to 
become the tool of the executive branch of the government 



40 THE CHARACTER OF 

— of the universal bestowinent of offices as the price of 
servitude under that grasping ambitious power, and as the 
reward of entire and absolute devotion to the plans, po- 
litical intrigues, and corrupt system of measures, of a bold 
and greedy party ? 

That Mr. Jefferson, in removing the New Haven collec- 
tor and other faithful officers from their places, was actua- 
ted by no other principle or motive than those which have 
here been ascribed to him, is acknowledged in this letter. 
He remarks, that after having corrected the procedure un- 
der the former administrations, " he shall with joy return 
to that state of things, when the only questions concerning 
a candidate shall be, Is he honest ? Is he capable ? Is he 
faithful to the constitution? " He had, then, as has been 
remarked, departed from that state of things; and, of 
course, while thus wandering from the path of duty, he 
must have asked a very different series of questions. 
What the nature of those questions was can be easily ima- 
gined. It must necessarily have been of a kind which 
had no reference to the constitutional duties of the execu- 
tive head of the government, but such as were unknown 
to the constitution, and of course dangerous to the inter- 
ests, the general welfare, and the constitutional liberties of 
the people. 

If it could be necessary to place this matter in a still 
clearer and stronger light, reference might be had to a let- 
ter to James Monroe, dated March 7, 1801, immediately 
after Mr. Jefferson had been sworn into office, in which 
he says — 

" These people," (the federalists,) " I always exclude 
their leaders, are now aggregated with us, they look with 
a certain degree of affection and confidence to the admin- 
istration, ready to become attached to it, if it avoids in 



TJHOMAS JEFFERSON. 41 

the outset acts which might revolt and throw them off. 
To give time for a perfect consolidation seems prudent. 
I have firmly refused to follow the counsels of those who 
have desired the giving offices to some of their leaders, in 
order to reconcile. I have given', and will give, only to 
republicans under existing circumstances. But I believe 
with others, that deprivations of office, if made on the 
ground of political principles alone, would revolt our new 
converts, and give a body to leaders who now stand alone. 
Some I know must be made. They must be as few as 
possible, done gradually, and done on some malversation, 
or inherent disqualification. Where we shall draw the 
line between retaining all and none is not yet settled, and 
will not be till we get our administration together; and 
perhaps even then, we shall proceed a tatons, balancing 
our measures according to the impression we perceive 
them to make." 

Is there any ground for wonder, or even surprise, that 
the federalists withheld their confidence from a man who 
entertained such sentiments as these ; and from whose ad- 
ministration they reasonably expected such pernicious 
consequences as such an example, protected and supported 
by popular delusion, was calculated to produce — conse- 
quences which the country now realize in all their force 
and eflfect ? 

4# 



42 THE CHARACTER OF 



CHAPTER III. 

Federalists opposed to Mr. Jefferson because of his known oppo- 
sition to an independent Judiciary — Letter to Ritchie, December 
25, 1820— To Melish, January 1813— To Nicholas, December, 
1813 — To Barry, July 1822 — Importance of Judicial Indepen- 
dence — Language used by Mr. Jefferson on the subject — His 
opposition to Courts manifested in the prosecution of Burr — 
Review of Burr's alleged conspiracy, and the proceedings of the 
government in relation to it — More attempted to be made of it 
than the facts would warrant— Nothing said about it by the Ex- 
ecutive, after the Message at the opening of the session, until 
January 22 — Article published on the same subject in the Rich- 
mond Enquirer — Burr's arrest and trial — Correspondence rela- 
ting to the trial — Attack upon Judge Marshall's character — Mr. 
Jefferson's objects in this affair political — Charges the Federalists 
with favoring Burr — Correspondence on the subject — Hostility 
to Judge Marshall on the ground of Burr's acquittal. 

The federalists entertained strong fears of the effects of 
Mr. Jefferson's influence at the head of the government, 
from his known hostility to an independent judiciary. 
Placing much reliance upon that very important branch of 
the government as the expounders of the constitution and 
the laws, and depending upon their intelligence and integ- 
rity for the establishment of the true principles of both, 
they viewed the absolute independence of the courts of all 
popular influence and control, as an indispensable charac- 
teristic of a safe and useful judiciary. The following ex- 
tracts from his works will show what Mr. Jefferson's sen- 
timents on that subject *were. In a letter to Thomas 
Ritchie, dated December 25, 1820, he says, — 



TJIOMAS JEFFERSON. 43 

" The judiciary of the United States is the subtle corps 
of sappers and miners constantly working under ground 
to undermine the foundations of our confederated fabric. 
They are construing our constitution from a co-ordination 
of a general and special government to a general and su- 
preme one alone. This will lay all things at their feet, 
and they are too well versed in English law to forget the 
maxim, ^^ Boni judicis est ampliare jurisdictionem." We 
shall see if they are bold enough to take the daring stride 
their five lawyers have lately taken. If they do, then, 
with the editor of our book in his address to the public, I 
will say, ' that against this every man should raise his 
voice,' and more, should uplift his arm. Who wrote this 
admirable address ? Sound, luminous, strong, not a word 
too much, nor one which can be changed but for the 
worse. That pen should go on, lay bare these wounds 
of our constitution, expose these decisions seriatim, and 
arouse, as it is able, the attention of the nation to these 
bold speculators on its patience. Having found from ex- 
perience that impeachment is an impracticable thing, a 
mere scare-crow, they consider themselves secure for life, 
they skulk from responsibility to public opinion, the only 
remaining hold on them under a practice first introduced 
into England by lord Mansfield. An opinion is huddled 
up in conclave, perhaps by a majority of one, delivered as 
if unanimous and with the silent acquiescence of lazy or 
timid associates, by a crafty chief judge, who sophisticates 
the law to his mind by the turn of his own reasoning. A 
judiciary law was once reported by the attorney-general 
to congress, requiring each judge to deliver his opinion 
seriatim and openly, and then to give it in writing to the 
clerk to be entered in the record. A judiciary indepen- 
dent of a king or executive alone, is a good thing ; but 



44 THE CHARACTER OF 

independence of the will of the nation is a solecism, at 
least in a republican government." 

In January, 1813, Mr. Jefferson, in a letter to Mr. 
Melish, makes use of the following language : — " The 
party called republican is steadily for the support of the 
present constitution. They obtained at its commence- 
ment all the amendments to it they desired. These rec- 
onciled them to it perfectly^ and if they have any ulterior 
views, it is only, perhaps, to popularize it further by 
shortening the senatorial term, and devising a process for 
the responsibility of judges more practicable than that of 
impeachment." 

In a letter to Nicholas, dated December 11, 1821, 

he says, " I fear that we are now in such another crisis, 
with this difference only, that the judiciary branch is alone 
and single-handed in the present assaults on the constitu- 
tion. But its assaults are more sure and deadly as from an 
agent seemingly passive and unassuming. May you and 
your contemporaries meet them with the same determina- 
tion and effect as your father and his did the alien and 
sedition laws, and preserve inviolate a constitution which, 
cherished in all its chastity and purity, will prove, in the 
end, a blessing to all the nations of the earth." 

In a letter to William T. Barry, dated July 2, 1822, he 
says, " So also in the cixnl revolution of 1801. Very 
many and very meritorious were the worthy patriots who 
assisted in bringing back our government to its republican 
track. To preserve it in that will require unremitting 
vigilance. Whether the surrender of our opponents, their 
reception into our camp, their assumption of our name 
and apparent accession to our objects, may strengthen or 
weaken the genuine principles of republicanism, may be a 
good or an evil, is yet to be seen. I consider the party 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 45 

division of whig and tory the most wholesome which can 
exist in any government, and well worthy of being nour- 
ished to keep out those of a more dangerous character. 
We already see the 'power installed for life, responsible to 
no authority, (for impeachment is not even a scare-crow,) 
advancing with a noiseless and steady pace to the great 
object of consolidation. The foundations are already 
deeply laid by their decisions for the annihilation of con- 
stitutional state rights, and the removal of every check, 
every counterpoise, to the engulphing power of which 
themselves are to make a sovereign part. If ever this 
vast country is brought under a single government it will 
be one of the most extensive corruption, indifferent and 
incapable of a wholesome care over so wide a spread of 
surface. This will not be borne, and you will have to 
choose between reformation and revolution. If I know 
the spirit of this country, the one or the other is inevitable. 
Before the canker is become inveterate, before its venom 
has reached so much of the body politic as to get beyond 
control, remedy should be applied. Let the future ap- 
pointment of judges be iox four or six years, and removable 
by the president and senate. This will bring their con- 
duct, at regular periods, under revision and protection, 
and may keep them in equipoise between the general and 
special governments. We have erred in this point by 
copying England, where certainly it is a good thing to 
have the judges independent of the king. But we have 
omitted to copy their caution also, which makes a judge 
removable on the address of both legislative houses. That 
there should be public functionaries independent of the 
nation, whatever may be their demerit, is a solecism in a 
republic of the first order of absurdity and inconsistency." 



46 THE CHARACTER OF 

These were Mr. Jefferson's sentiments down almost to 
the close of his life ; the last letter from which they have 
been taken was written only four years before that event. 
Finding in it the same general spirit of hostility to. an in- 
dependent judiciary, it is fair to conclude that the feeling 
formed a part of the constitution of his mind. As popular 
applause was the idol of his life, he would gladly have 
subjected courts to the most dangerous and most mis- 
chievous of all the great variety of influences which could 
assail them, viz: popular caprice and popular passion. 
The human mind cannot conceive a good reason for bring- 
ing courts under this species of control. When the con- 
stitution was formed, the enlighterj^ed and virtuous patriots 
and statesmen who framed it, and the people by whom it 
was afterwards adopted and established, considered the 
independence of that great branch of the government as 
an article of fundamental importance. Without a pro- 
vision for that purpose there is very little probability that 
it would have been adopted. Without it, it would have 
been comparatively of but little value. But instead of in- 
telligent, upright, independent and fearless courts, Mr. 
Jefferson would have subjected them to the fluctuations of 
popular opinion and party passion, subject to the changes 
of political divisions, and liable to be called to account for 
any and every decision which should prove to be obnox- 
ious to the feelings of a rabble, and to be displaced from 
office at the demand of a mob. For these are the usual, 
and it may be added the only modes in which popular 
opinion can be formed into a court of impeachment, to 
arraign, try and determine on the conduct and qualifi- 
cations of judges. Without an independent judiciary, 
where the laws will be faithfully and intelligently ex- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 47 

pounded and justice impartially and fearlessly adminis- 
tered, the rights and liberties of no country can be safe, 
but injustice, oppression and tyranny will inevitably prevail. 

Such was the animosity of Mr. Jefferson to the supreme 
court, that in giving vent to his feelings, he makes use not 
merely of loose, but even contradictory expressions. He 
says, " the party called republican is steadily for the sup- 
port of the present constitution. They obtained at its 
commencement all the amendments to it they desired. 
These reconciled them to it perfectly, and if they have any 
ulterior views, it is only perhaps to popularize it further 
by shortening the senatorial term, and devising a process 
for the respo'nsibility of the judges, more practicable than 
that of impeachment." If the party called republican had 
obtained all the amendments they wished, and were per- 
fectly satisfied with the constitution, it is a little remarka- 
ble that they should be desirous of amending it a little 
more ; and especially in two such material particulars as 
those here mentioned. 

But Mr. Jefferson's hostility to an independent judiciary, 
was, if possible, more strikingly manifested in the course of 
the judicial proceedings which were instituted against 
Aaron Burr, after the suppression of what at the time was 
called an insurrection against the government of the United 
States. That event, whatever was its real nature or its 
object, has in a good degree passed out of mind. But it 
may be useful, in giving these various traits of Mr. Jeffer- 
son's character, to relate some historical facts connected 
with it, as having a tendency to elucidate the peculiarity 
of his genius, and the means which he could use for the 
accomplishment of a favorite object. 

It is well known that Burr, who during the first four 
years of Mr. Jefferson's administration was vice president 



48 THE CHARACTER OF 

of the United States, was, at a subsequent period, charged 
by him with treasonable operations against the national gov- 
ernment and Union. The events on which this charge was 
founded, occurred in the year 1806. This was considered 
as an object of sufficient importance to be introduced, in 
very general terms .however, into the president's message 
at the opening of the session of congress of December of 
that year ; and to form the subject of a more special com- 
munication in the month of January following. Still later 
in the session, Messrs. Bollman and Swartwout, who had 
been arrested at New Orleans as joint conspirators with 
Burr, were brought as state prisoners to the city of Wash- 
ington, and held for sometime in custody on the charge of 
treason. Two other individuals, Ogden and Alexander, 
were also arrested at New Orleans and transported to 
Baltimore, as accomplices in the same offence. The two 
former, after being imprisoned for some time on the charge 
of treason, by order of the circuit court of the district of 
Columbia, were discharged from confinement by the su- 
preme court of the United States, on the ground that the 
proof adduced of treasonable conduct was not sufficient 
to hold them in prison on that charge. Ogden was taken 
before a state magistrate at Baltimore, and discharged for ' 
the want of proof of any offence ; and Alexander, who 
was carried to Washington, was released because no accu- 
sation was made against him. Subsequently, Burr was 
apprehended, taken to Richmond, in Virginia, where, af- 
ter a labored trial, he was acquitted by the jury. 

Thus, it happened, after the union had been kept for 
nearly a year in a state of fermentation, and no less than 
five persons had been arrested and transported, either by 
land or by water, many hundreds of miles, accused of 
treason, while the public feelings were kept for a long pe- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 49 

riod in a state of impassioned excitement, the very extra- 
ordinary circumstance took place, notwithstanding the 
most unwearied exertions of the executive branch of the 
government to subject the persons accused to the penahies 
of the law, that not a single individual was ever convicted 
of any offence, of any description, connected with this al- 
leged conspiracy against the liberties of the country. 

That much more was attempted to be made out of it 
than the truth would warrant is evident from the facts 
that have just been mentioned. That Mr. Jefferson was 
actuated by other motives than a mere regard to the safety 
of the union and the constitution can hardly be question- 
ed, now the parties and the policy which were involved in 
the controversy have passed away. That he had in this, 
and in all other cases, a higher regard to his own feelings 
and interests than to those of his country and its govern- 
ment, does not admit of a reasonable doubt. The follow- 
ing document, though in form unofficial, may be consider- 
ed as having proceeded from executive authority. It was 
published at Richmond on the same day that the presi- 
dent's message respecting " Burr's conspiracy " was deliv- 
ered to the house of representatives at Washington. That 
the proceedings of that department in regard to this sub- 
ject were calculated for political effect cannot be doubted. 
That the arrests which have been mentioned w^re plan- 
ned beforehand, and were intended to produce or at least to 
heighten the general impression expected from the " con- 
spiracy," will satisfactorily appear from what follows. 

After the delivery of the message at the opening of the 
session of congress in December, 1806, no information of 
any moment was communicated to congress from the 
executive on that subject, until late in the month of Janua- 
ry following. At the same time, rumors were in constant 
5 



50 THE CHARACTER OF 

circulation at the seat of government respecting the pro- 
gress of the conspirators and the formidable nature of the 
conspiracy. At length, on the 16th of January, a resolu- 
tion was adopted by the house of representatives^ by a 
vote of 109 to 14, calling upon the president for informa- 
tion respe(-ting the alleged combination against the peace 
and safety of the Union. The minority of fourteen was 
composed exclusively of the devoted friends and partizans 
of the administration. On the 22d of January, a message 
containing, professedly, a historical account of Burr's pro- 
ceedings, from their commencement to the date of the 
message, so far as the executive thought it proper to dis- 
close them, was sent to the house of representatives. On 
the same day an article was published in a newspaper, 
called the Enquirer, at Richmond, Virginia, which is re- 
cited at length herein, as tending to disclose some facts 
not generally known relating to this " insurrection." 
Everything of any importance in the official message to 
the house of representatives is to be found in this article, 
and some very material ones in the latter which are not 
contained in the former. This will convince every mind 
that the newspaper document proceeded from the cabinet; 
and the facts stated in it will probably satisfy most people, 
that personal feelings and politics were intimately connect- 
ed with Mr. Jefferson's conduct in relation to this famed 
transaction. 

\From the Richmond Enquirer, Jan. 22, 1807.] 
" Burr's Conspiracy. The following letter casts more 
pure light upon the conspiracy of Aaron Burr, than any 
communication which has yet been published. It is de- 
rived from the same ' high authority ' as the letter which 
appeared two weeks since in the Enquirer, on the same 
subject." 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 51 

" Washington, Jan. 15, 1807. 

" I hasten to communicate to you the information 
brought from Kentucky and New Orleans by a mail 
which arrived here yesterday. It has taken me half a 
day to collect from the different persons who have receiv- 
ed letters, the intelligence contained in them. I shall not 
take time to digest it into any order, but I am satisfied I 
need not hesitate to rely on the interest it will excite. 

" There is no account of any seizures having been made 
upon the Ohio, since that of the Muskingum flotilla, 
nor can it be said with certainty that the boats under 
Blannerhasset and Tyler, which left the neighborhood of 
Marietta with great precipitance upon the first alarm given 
them by the government of Ohio, have not passed Cincin- 
nati, notwithstanding the prompt and decisive measures 
taken by governor TifRn to intercept them there, and com- 
pletely effected their escape from that state. Mr. Graham, 
after having given the information he had collected to the 
legislature of Ohio, which received him and then closed 
its doors, and after having witnessed the prompt and vig- 
orous measures, both legislative and executive, which his 
disclosures produced, immediately repaired to Kentucky, 
the legislature of which state was in session at his arrival. 
He was admitted to a private meeting of that body, to 
which he made the same discoveries. The same measures 
followed with equal zeal and dispatch. Precisely the 
same law passed without delay, and parties of militia were 
immediately ordered to Louisville, to the mouth of Trade- 
water, and the mouth of Cumberland river and Tennessee, 
for the purpose of stopping and detaining all boats and all 
persons passing downwards. The militia moved with 
alacrity, and the loyalty of the state became at once as it 
was before asserted by its representatives here to be steady 



52 THE CHARACTER OF 

and strong-. Nothing of the operations of these parties has 
yet reached this place. 

" The name of Graham being mentioned, it is requisite 
to give you some information about that person. He is the 
same who was formerly secretary of legation to Spain, and 
is now secretary to the territorial government of Orleans. 
Being accidentally in this place during the first days of 
November last, he received from the executive, which had 
full confidence in his integrity, discretion and constancy, 
private instructions, with a secret authority and creden- 
tials, to follow the footsteps of colonel Burr and his lead- 
ing partizans, to notice their measures, to endeavor to dis- 
cover their views, and if possible, to get full possession of 
their plan of operations. Such was his prudence and 
dexterity that he was never suspected, and overtures were 
even made to him by Blannerhasset and others to join 
them in the scheme. The result of his labors and the 
substance of his communication to the legislatures of Ohio 
and Kentucky is, that the armament was destined in the 
first place against New Orleans, the wealth of which was 
to be seized and made use of to allure adventurers from 
all parts for an expedition against Mexico, which colonel 
Burr hoped to overrun, and by the influence of the gold 
and silver he would acquire over the needy and the bold 
in the United States, in the islands, and in the country of 
Mexico itself, efTectually to subdue and finally to convert 
it into a kingdom for himself. 

" The success of the freebooters in their repeated incur- 
sions into the wealthier parts of the Spanish territories, 
on either side of the Isthmus, about the close of the seven- 
teenth century, was sufficient to inspire with such a de- 
sign a mind so daring, so lofty, and so desperate as that of 
colonel Burr. He no doubt believed, that if Morgan had 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 53 

been such a man as himself, he would never have quitted 
Panama, but would have extended and organized his con- 
quests, and established a Welch dynasty in the richest 
country in America. 

" That this was his ultimate design, and was the real 
line to his followers, there can be no question. In order 
to mask the grand scheme, he assumed several lesser 
plans, which were perhaps altogether feigned. He held 
out to the partizans of Spain, that his view was to restore 
Louisiana to its ancient proprietors, and he had commenced 
a deep intrigue upon the Missouri, to alienate the people of 
that territory from the United States of which there is proof 
in a deposition of the sheriff of St. Charles, transmitted to 
me by a friend in that country, and now in my possession. 

" He assured the people of the Ohio river, when he did 
not expect to engage them in his service, that his design 
was to colonize the tract of country twenty-five miles 
square upon the Washita and Red river, which had been 
granted by a Spanish governor to a German in the Span- 
ish service, and had been purchased, he said, by himself 
in partnership with others. He observed that the persons 
he had engaged were bound to perform military service, 
because war with Spain was inevitable. That he had for 
that reason directed them to leave behind for one year, all 
their female connections, and had prepared arms and mili- 
tary stores, with provisions for a length of time, in order 
to be ready to bring a strong auxiliary force into the field 
in behalf of his country if occasion should require. He 
gave the most solemn assurances, of which there is writ- 
ten proof in possession of a gentleman lately appoint- 
ed to the senate from Kentucky, that his scheme was 
viewed with the greatest satisfaction by the executive gov- 
ernment of the United States, because it resembled their 
5^ 



54 THE CHARACTER OF 

favorite plan of creating a military colony upon the south- 
western frontier, by giving a bounty in lands to able bodi- 
ed men who would settle immediately, and engage to per- 
form military service for so many years ; which plan the 
legislature had not sanctioned. 

" This he used with some effect, but sacrificed forever, 
his former reputation for veracity, which with the world 
has been unimpaired until now, although it is now said, it 
was long ago blasted with his acquaintance. 

" I do not hesitate to pronounce, that his designs are 
completely frustrated. Should that part of his flotilla, 
which once escaped governor TifRn, have continued fortu- 
nate in escaping him again at Cincinnati, and in passing 
the Kentucky militia; should the boats built upon the 
Cumberland river, and the Tennessee, be lucky enough, to 
form a junction with it, and the whole proceed down the 
Mississippi, and all this is rendered too probable by the date 
of events and the discontinuance of the accounts of seiz- 
ures, still their capture is certain. 

" By letters from New Orleans, as late as the 9th of 
December, which arrived yesterday, accounts are brought 
of the exertions of general Wilkinson and governor Clai- 
borne, to prepare for the defence of that place against at- 
tacks from the side of the sea, not the river. 

" All the gun vessels of the United States in that quar- 
ter were in the river, and were advancing up it. 

" The regular army of the United States had returned 
again to the Mississippi, and had arrived in New Orleans. 

" The militia of that city were in motion. 

" The French inhabitants had displayed a zeal and 
spirit in their loyalty which renders them worthy of their 
new country. 

*' General Wilkinson and sfovernor Claiborne had con- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 55 

vened the merchants of New Orleans, in full assembly. 
The former, in an animated address, after denouncing 
colonel Burr, exhorted them to assist him in his efforts 
for the defence of their city, and solemnly swore, in the 
enthusiastic style peculiar to him, that if it were taken by 
the vessels he would perish in the endeavor to repel the 
assault. The meeting adopted, unanimously, some spirit- 
ed and patriotic resolutions. 

" The governor was requested by those who would be 
the first sufferers by the measure, to lay an embargo im- 
mediately, which he did without hesitation. 

" A considerable sum was subscribed to be distributed 
as bounty among the sailors who would engage to serve 
on board the ships. 

" Many of the guns of the city were placed upon the 
merchantmen in the river, and a respectable fleet was sud- 
denly formed to repel one which was expected from the 
West Indies, 

" It is by no means certain that there is any ground at 
all for this apprehension. Colonel Burr, when he made 
proposals to general Wilkinson to join in the scheme, as- 
sured him that the late commodore Truxton was in Ja- 
maica collecting a fleet to meet them at the mouth of the 
Mississippi. This is one of the numerous dishonorable 
falsehoods of that deluded man. Truxton had too much 
regard for his former reputation, and too much honor to 
engage in this affair. He communicated at once the pro- 
posals made to him, and remains slill on his farm, near 
Amboy in Jersey. 

" Perhaps the falsehood may extend no farther than the 
name of Truxton, and some of Miranda's vessels may be 
expected, but more probably the whole is false. 

" Colonel Burr, by the last accounts, was still at the 



56 THE CHARACTER OF 

house of general Jackson, in Tennessee, who entertained 
him without the smallest suspicion of his treasonable con- 
duct. 

" A pilot boat has been lately despatched from New 
York ; it is conjectured to meet him somewhere on the 
coast of Florida and take him off. Information of the 
sailing of this boat has been forwarded to general Wilkin- 
son. I am inclined, myself, to think that he will not go 
to the coast lest he should be apprehended by the Span- 
iards. He cannot venture to New Orleans, for he must 
have learned of the arrest of his accomplices by general 
Wilkinson, which was to have taken place about the 12th 
of December, soon after which they were to be shipped 
for this place. 

" Those men on the 9th remained still ignorant that 
they were to be apprehended as traitors, and thought 
themselves safe in having separated so early from their 
chief, although they had acted under his authority in 
descending the river. I am disposed to conjecture that 
colonel Burr will endeavor to meet such of his boats 
as may have escaped somewhere on the Mississippi, 
above general Wilkinson's advanced party, and will place 
himself in the centre of baron Bastrop's grant, with the 
view to maintain boldly that he never had any other 
scheme in agitation. 

" Should this be his resolution it will be extremely dif- 
ficult for justice to pursue him with effect through all his 
wily doublings. When he has conversed upon the sub- 
ject of his expedition, he has been so artful in blendinpr all 
his different plans together, that it is not probable he has 
committed himself in discourses so fully as to produce his 
cum conviction. When he has written without disguising 



THOMAS JEFFERSON, hi 

his matter, he has always used cyphers. Unless some of 
his accomplices will confess, it will be doubtful how the 
trial will terminate. 

" There is no certainty yet as to the source from which 
he has derived his funds. My own conjecture rests 
where it did from the commencement, upon the late 
Spanish ambassador, as to the largest portion of them ; 
upon the force of party zeal in certain characters, and 
upon individual resentment and desire of revenge, per- 
haps, for some small aids in addition. 

" I have no time to make observations, or I should take 
pleasure in expatiating upon the value of this glorious ex- 
ample of rebellion, suppressed without expense of blood or 
treasure, in strengthening the affection and confidence of 
the friends of our republican system, and in lessening the 
distrust of others." 

Having succeeded in arresting Burr, and bringing him 
for trial within reach of executive exertion and influence, 
every effort that human ingenuity could devise, or a spirit 
of vindictive resentment could make use of to insure a 
conviction, was brought into exercise. The well-known 
and universally acknowledged principles of law regulating 
trials for criminal offences, were spurned and scouted by 
Mr. Jefferson ; chief-justice Marshall having thought prop- 
er to apply those principles to the case of this state pris- 
oner, was reviled and calumniated in a coarse and ungen- 
tlemanly manner by the chief magistrate of the nation. 
These facts will abundantly appear from a steady and an- 
imated correspondence which Mr. Jefferson kept up with 
the prosecuting attorney for the district of Virginia, during 
Burr's confinement and trial. The following extracts will 
show the great length to which he suffered himself to be 
carried by his feelings in relation to this subject. 



58 THE CHARACTER OF 

In a letter to AVilliam B. Giles, dated April 20, 1807, 
Mr. Jefferson says — " That there should be anxiety and 
doubt in the public mind in the present defective state of 
the proof, is not wonderful ; and this has been sedulously 
encouraged by the tricks of the judges to force trials before 
it is possible to collect the evidence, dispersed through a 
line of two thousand miles from Maine to Orleans. ^^ 

" The first ground of complaint was the supine inatten- 
tion of the administration to a treason stalking through 
the land in open day. The present one, that they have 
crushed it before it was ripe for execution, so that no overt 
acts can be produced. This last may be true ; though I 
believe it is not. Oar information having been chiefly by 
way of letter, we do not know of a certainty yet what will 
be proved. We have set on foot an inquiry through the 
whole of the country which has been the scene of these 
transactions, to be able to prove to the courts, if they will 
give lime, or to the public by way of communication to 
congress what the real facts have been. For obtaining 
this, we are obliged to appeal to the patriotism of particu- 
lar persons in different places, of whom we have requested 
to make the inquiry in their neighborhood, and on such 
information as shall be voluntarily offered. Aided by no 
process or facilities from the federal courts, but frowned 
on by their new-born zeal for the liberty of those whom 
we would not permit to overthrow the liberties of their 
country, we can expect no revealments from the accom- 
plices of the chief offender. Of treasonable intentions, 
the judges have been obliged to confess there is probable 
appearance. What loop-hole they will find in the case 
when it comes to trial, we cannot foresee. Eaton, Stod- 
dart, Wilkinson, and two others whom I must not name, 
will satisfy the world, if not the judges, of Burr's guilt," 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 59 

" But a moment's calculation will show that this evi- 
dence cannot be collected under four months, probably 
five, from the moment of deciding when and where the 
trial shall be. I desired Mr. Rodney expressly to inform 
the chief justice of this, inofficially. But Mr. Marshall 
says, ' more than five weeks have elapsed since the opin- 
ion of the supreme court has declared the necessity of 
proving the overt acts, if they exist. Why are they not 
proved ? ' In what terms of decency can we speak of this ? 
As if an express could go to Natchez or the mouth of Cum- 
berland and return in five weeks, to do which has never 
taken less than twelve. Again, ' If, in November or De- 
cember last, a body of troops had been assembled on the 
Ohio, it is impossible to suppose the affidavits establishing 
the fact could not have been obtained by the last of March.' 
But I ask the judge where they should have been lodged ? 
At Frankfort ? at Cincinnati ? at Nashville ? St. Louis ? 
Natchez ? New Orleans ? These were the probable places 
of apprehension and examination. It was not known at 
Wash'mgton until the 26th of March, that Burr would 
escape from the western tribunals, be retaken, and brought 
to an eastern one : and in five days after (neither five 
months nor five weeks as the judge calculated) he says, 
it is ' impossible to suppose the affidavits could not have 
been obtained.' Where? At Richmond he certainly 
meant, or meant only to throw dust in the eyes of his au- 
dience. But all the principles of law are to be perverted 
which could bear on the favorite offenders, who endeavor 
to overturn this odious republic. ' I understand,' says 
the judge, ^probable cause of guilt to be a case made out 
by proofs furnishing good reason to believe,' &c. Speak- 
ing as a lawyer, he must mean legal proof, i. e. proof on 
oath, at least. But this is confounding probability and 



60 THE CHARACTER OF 

proof. We had always before understood that where 
there was reasonable ground to believe guilt, the offender 
must be put on his trial. That guilty intentions were proba- 
ble, the judge believed. And as to the overt acts, were not 
the bundle of letters of information in Mr. Rodney's hands, 
the letters and facts published in the newspapers. Burr's 
flight, and the universal belief or rumor of his guilt, proba- 
ble ground for presuming the facts of enlistment, military 
guard, rendezvous, threat of civil war or capitulation, so 
as to put him on trial ? Is there a candid man in the 
United States who does not believe some one if not all of 
these overt acts to have taken place ? 

" If there ever had been an instance in this or the pre- 
ceding administrations, of federal judges so applying 
principles of law as to condemn a federal or acquit a 
republican offender^ I should have jjudged them in the 
present case with more charity. All this, however, will 
work well. The nation will judge both the offender and 
judges for themselves. If a member of the executive or 
legislature does wrong, the day is never far distant when 
the people will remove him. They will see then, and 
amend the error in our constitution which makes any 
branch independent of the nation. They will see that one 
of the great co-ordinate branches of the j^overnment, set- 
ting itself in opposition to the other two, and to the com- 
mon sense of the nation, proclaims impunity to that class 
of offenders which endeavors to overturn the constitution, 
and are themselves protected in it by the constitution it- 
self: for impeachment is a farce which will not be tried 
again. If their protection of Burr produces this amend- 
ment, it will do more good than his condemnation would 
have done." 

The attack here made upon judge Marshall, who tried 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 61 

Burr, appears to be upon the alleged charge, that he hur- 
ried the trial on before the government had a fair opportu- 
nity to make the necessary preparation ; and the sugges- 
tion is clearly made that this proceeded from a disposition 
to screen him from justice. That Mr. Jefferson was de- 
sirous not only of punishing, but of crushing the man who 
was his competitor for the office of president, before the 
house of representatives, is very apparent. That he wish- 
ed to turn the case not only against the court, but against 
the federalists, is equally clear. And vindictive as his 
feelings towards Burr obviously were, there is no room to 
doubt that he was quite as anxious for the political effect 
which he was endeavoring tc produce, as he was that jus- 
tice should be faithfully administered. 

The truth undoubtedly was, that he had taken up Burr 
more upon the ground of suspicion than on that of sub- 
stantial proof, and he was irritated at the course pursued 
by the court in applying the plain principles of law to his 
case, as would have been done in that of an ordinary in- 
dividual brought within the jurisdiction of the court for 
trial for a criminal offence. He says the information he 
had received was chiefly by way of letter, and that he did 
not know to a certainty what would be proved — that he 
had set on foot an inquiry through the whole scene of 
Burr's transactions, in order to prove to the courts if they 
would give time, or to congress and the public if they 
would not, what the real facts had been. It is then per- 
fectly clear, in the first place, that he had not procured his 
proofs, and in the second, that he did not even know what 
facts had occurred which he could charge against the ac- 
cused. Can any man wonder that judge Marshall did not 
think proper to put off the trial, and hold the prisoner 
in custody for four months, which is the shortest period 
6 



62 



THE CHARACTER OF 



mentioned by Mr. Jefferson as necessary to ascertain the 
facts and collect the evidence to support them, merely ta 
give him time to make out and support the charges ? Mr. 
Jefferson was bred a lawyer; and he need not have 
gained anything more than a very moderate degree of 
acquaintance with the principles of law and the prac- 
tice of courts to have ascertained that no court could have 
postponed a trial on such grounds as were urged by him. 
No man is justified in bringing any person before even a 
grand-jury, much more before a court, without having 
previously ascertained that at least an offence had been 
committed, and that witnesses to prove it could be obtain- 
ed. If these witnesses could not be produced at the out- 
set, proof of their absence or other sufficient cause for 
their not being present must be adduced, in which their 
names must be specified and the importance of their testi- 
mony be regularly sworn to. But no well regulated tri- 
bunal ever postponed a trial, and held a culprit in prison 
in the mean time, in order to give the prosecutor time and 
opportunity to scour a thousand or two miles of country to 
hunt up grounds of accusation and evidence to substan- 
tiate them. 

The truth unquestionably was in this case, as in all others 
susceptible of such a direction, he wished so to conduct 
the controversy with Burr, both in the country and in the 
court, as to produce a political effect beneficial to himself 
and his party views and interests. He had set on foot an 
inquiry in order to prove facts not only to the courts, but 
to the public, through the medium of communications to 
congress. In doing this, he complains not only of not be- 
ing aided by process or facilities from the federal courts, 
but of being frowned upon by the new-born zeal of those 
courts for the liberty of those whom he would 7iot suffer to 



THOMAS JEPFERSON. 



63 



overthrow the liberties of their country. A more unfound- 
ed and malicious charge was never alleged or insinuated 
against any man, much more against as upright, intelligent 
and virtuous a judge as ever adorned the bench of justice. 
Not content with this, he proceeds to make a specific 
charge against judge Marshall. " But," says he, "all the 
principles of law are to be perverted which would bear on 
the favorite offenders who endeavor to overturn this odi- 
ous republic." 

Conscious of the grossness of his charges against the 
chief justice, he endeavors by a suggestion equally gross 
to justify himself by a reference to the previous conduct of 
the court. " If," says he, '* there had ever been an in- 
stance, in this or the preceding administrations, of federal 
judges so applying principles of law as to condemn a 
federal or acquit a republican offender, I should have judg- 
ed them in the present case with more charity. All this, 
however, will icork welly There is some consolation, un- 
der all these trials of his patience, patriotism and love of 
justice, that this perversion of law and contempt of jus- 
tice, will produce a good effect upon party politics — for 
that is the obvious meaning of the expression, " All this 
will work well." 

And to leave no doubt upon any mind that this con- 
struction of his language is correct, the following extract 
from the same letter is adduced as evidence. " The fed- 
eralists, too, give all their aid, making Burros cause their 
ovjn, mortified only that he did not separate the union or 
overturn the government, and proving that had he had a 
little dawn of success they would have joined him to in- 
troduce his object, their favorite monarchy, as they would 
any other enemy, foreign or domestic, who could rid them 



64 THE CHARACTER OF 

of this hateful republic for any other government in ex- 
change." 

The same accusation is contained in a letter addressed 
to James Bowdoin, April 2, 1807. He says, " The fact 
is, that the federalists make Burr's cause their own, and 
exert their whole influence to shield him from punish- 
ment, as they did the adherents of Miranda. And it is 
unfortunate that federalism is still predominant in our ju- 
diciary department, which is consequently in opposition to 
the legislative and executive branches, and is able to 
baffle their measures often." 

These charges against the federalists, it will be observed, 
are contained in private letters to Mr. Jefferson's confidential 
friends, and of course we are to conclude were not intend- 
ed to see the light ; and in all probability they were never 
exposed to the public until they appeared in his posthu- 
mous volumes. It is not probable that he credited his 
own declarations, because there was no evidence laid be- 
fore the country at the time, nor has there been since, 
which gave the last color to them. They were, beyond all 
question, unfounded and false. The federalists never had 
any political connection with Aaron Burr. When the ques- 
tion whether he or Mr. Jefferson should be president of the 
United States came before the house of representatives, a 
choice of evils was presented to that body. They had very 
little confidence in the character or patriotism of either ; but 
they preferred Burr to Jefferson. And this probably was 
the source of this extreme animosity towards them ; for it is 
one of the remarkable traits of his character, that he never 
forgave the man who endeavored to check him in the ca- 
reer of ambition. In a letter to Dr. Logan, dated May 
11, 1805, is the following passage: — "I see with infinite 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 65 

pain the bloody schism which has taken place among out 
friends in Pennsylvania and New York, and will probably 
take place in other states. The main body of both sec- 
tions mean well, but their good intentions will produce a 
great public evil. The minority, whichever section shall 
be the minority, will end in coalition with the federalists 
and some compromising of principle ; because these will 
not sell their aid for nothing. Republicanism will thus 
lose, and royalism gain some portion of that ground which 
we thought we had rescued to good government. I do 
not express my sense of our misfortunes from any idea 
that they are remediable. I know that the passions of 
men will take their course, that they are not to be con- 
trolled but by despotism, and that this melancholy truth 
is the pretext for despotism. The duty of an upright ad- 
ministration is to pursue its course steadily, to know^ noth- 
ing of these family dissensions, and to cherish the good 
principles of both parties. The war ad internecionem, 
[the war of extirmination,] which we have waged against 
federalism, has filled our latter times with strife and un- 
happiness. We have met it with pain, indeed, but with 
firmness, because we believed it the last convulsive effort 
of that hydra which we had conquered in the field." 

In a letter to George Hay, district-attorney, who was 
carrying on the prosecution against Burr, dated June 20, 
1807, Mr. Jefferson says, " I did not see till last night the 
opinion of the judge on the sub'pmna duces tecum against 
the president. Considering the question there as coram 
non judia, I did not read his argument with much atten- 
tion. Yet I saw readily enough that, as is usual where 
an opinion is to be supported, right or wrong, he dwells 
much on smaller objections and passes over those which 
are solid. Laying down the position generally that al! 
6^ 



66 THE CHARACTER OF 

persons owe obedience to subpoenas, he admits no excep- 
tion unless it can be produced in his law books." 

In another letter to the same person, dated Sept. 7, 
1807, after Burr's acquittal, he says, " I am happy in 
having the benefit of Mr. Madison's counsel on this occa- 
sion, he happening now to be with me. We are both 
strongly of opinion that the prosecution against Burr for 
misdemeanor should proceed at Richmond. If defeated, 
it will heap coals of fire on the head of the judged 

It is apparent from these extracts, and particularly from 
the closing sentence in the last, that Mr. Jefferson not 
only experienced feelings of disappointment and extreme 
mortification at Burr's acquittal, but of much deeper re- 
sentment towards the great judge before whom he was 
tried. Judge Marshall supported through a long life the 
highest reputation for learning, talents, integrity and in- 
dependence of mind. He was an ornament to the bench, 
and an honor to his country; and his character will be 
had in the most honorable remembrance, not only by all 
the upright and virtuous inhabitants of this country, but 
throughout the civilized world, when those who vilified 
him in the administration of justice will be forgotten, or 
recollected only to be contemned and despised. On the 
head of such a man Mr. Jefferson wished, merely for the 
gratification of his vindictive spirit towards a man who 
had escaped his vengeance as well as the penalty of the 
law, to heap coals of fire. In another letter to Mr. Hay, 
he says, " Those whole proceedings, (in Burr's trial,) will 
be laid before congress, that they may decide whether 
the defect has been in the evidence of guilt, or in the law, 
or in the application of the law^ and that they may provide 
the proper remedy for the past and the future." Here 
there is undoubtedly a broad hint at an impeachment of 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 67 

the chief justice, for a wilful perversion of the law for the 
purpose of preventing Burr's conviction. 

Much more might be adduced on this subject; but here 
is abundant evidence that the opinions which the federal- 
ists entertained respecting Mr. Jefferson's hostility to an 
independent judiciary were well founded and just. In 
their estimation, this was one of the great fundamental 
principles of the constitution, without which it would 
hardly have been worth the formality of adoption ; and 
with such feelings and such sentiments, they could not 
fail of being opposed to the elevation of a person to the 
office of chief magistrate whose sentiments were so much 
at variance with their own, and whose influence in regard 
to the proper constitutional standing and weight of the 
court they had every reason to believe would be exerted 
for the most mischievous and dangerous purposes. 

They also contain abundant evidence of his dislike of 
courts, and particularly of a judiciary so independent as 
that neither executive frowns, nor popular passion or fa- 
vor, could^ have any influence over its official conduct. 
This was precisely the situation in which those who form- 
ed and those who adopted the constitution intended it 
should be placed. Mr. Jeflerson's hostility to this part of 
that instrument obviously was that it would place one 
branch of the government out of his reach and beyond his 
control. He was not at all satisfied with the power of 
impeachment as the means of securing that good behav- 
ior which was the tenure of judicial office. He calls it 
a farce, a mere scare-crow, totally inefficacious to keep the 
courts within the scope of popular influence, or what he 
calls responsibility to the people. 

But a stronger objection, in his mind, lay against the 
court itself. This was, its federalism. If the judges, un- 



68 THE CHARACTER OF 

der the influence of federalism or any other feeling or 
principle, had perverted justice or sanctioned a violation 
of law, they would have been justly liable to an impeach- 
ment ; and if charges of that description had been proved 
and substantiated, the senate, as constituted during his 
administration, would have sustained it. But his objec- 
tion to the conduct of judge Marshall in the trial of Burr 
was not that he did not regard the law, but, in reality, 
that he did. In his letter to Giles, he says, " That there 
should be anxiety and doubt in the public mind in the 
present defective state of the proof is not wonderful; and 
this has been sedulously encouraged by the tricks of the 
judge to force trials before it is possible to collect the evi- 
dence dispersed through a line of two thousand miles, 
from Maine to Orleans." " Our information having been 
chiefly by way of letter, we do not know of a certainty 
yet what will be proved. We have set on foot an inquiry 
through the whole of the country which has been the 
scene of these transactions, to be able to prove to the 
courts, if they will give time, or to the public by way 
of communication to congress, what the real facts have 
been." 

From this passage, it is apparent that he had a prisoner 
in custody charged with the highest crime known to the 
law, not only without evidence to prove his guilt but even 
to establish the preliminary fact that the crime had been 
committed. And he was angry with judge Marshall that 
he would not pervert the plain principles of law and the 
practice of courts, by retaining the person accused in 
prison until he could scour the country for proof to make 
out his case. And to show the extreme looseness of his 
sentiments on the subject of criminal justice, in answer to 
a remark from the bench that probable cause of guilt must 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 69 

be made out by proof, he says, " That guilty intentions 
were probable the judge believed. And as to the overt 
acts, were not the bundle of letters of information in Mr. 
Rodney's hands, the letters and facts published in the 
newspapers. Burr's flight, and the universal belief or 
rumor of his guilt, probable ground for presuming the facts 
of enlistment, military guard ? " &c. 



70 THE CHARACTER OF 



CHAPTER IV. 

Federalists opposed Mr. Jefferson on the ground of his unsound 
and dangerous opinions respecting the constitution — Correspon- 
dence with Mrs. Adams — Friendship for Mr. Adams — Paying 
Callendar — His acquaintance with Callendar — Discharge of per- 
sons convicted under the sedition law, because he conceived the 
law a nullity — His sentiments respecting the power of the execu- 
tive to decide on the constitutionality of laws. The executive 
and judicial powers equal in this case — The sincerity of Mr. Jef- 
ferson's professions of friendship for Mr. Adams — Publication 
of Paine's Rights of Man — Mr. Jefferson's letter to general 
Washington in relation to it. 

The federalists viewed Mr. Jefferson as entertaining 
loose and dangerous opinions respecting the principles and 
authority of the constitution of the United States, and that 
he would, in any peculiar exigency, give it such a con- 
struction as would make it answer his own purposes. 
During the administration of the senior president Adams, 
many of the measures of the government were particularly 
odious to Mr. Jefferson and his party. Such feelings very 
naturally produced a coolness, if not something more, be- 
tween these two high officers of the government. In the 
year 1804, Mrs. Adams addressed a letter of condolence to 
Mr. Jefferson on the death of his daughter, which drew 
from him an answer, in which, with a degree of skill and 
dexterity that no other man could practice, he paved the 
way for a reconciliation between the two rival dignitaries ; 
in which attempt he ultimately succeeded. Mr. Adams, 
with strong powers of mind and great pride of character, 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 71 

was not proof against flattery ; and Mr. Jefferson, who 
understood his character well, knew where to apply its 
power in such a manner as to secure his object. In his 
answer to Mrs. Adams, which is dated June 13, 1804, after 
noticing the particular object of her letter, he says — 

" Mr. Adams's friendship and mine began at an earlier 
date. It accompanied us through long and important 
scenes. The different conclusions we had drawn from our 
political reading and reflections were not permitted to less- 
en mutual esteem ; each party being conscious they were 
the result of an honest conviction in the other. Like dif- 
ferences of opinion existing among our fellow citizens, at- 
tached them to the one or the other of us, and produced a 
rivalship in their minds which did not exist in ours. We 
never stood in one another's way. For if either had been 
withdrawn at any time, his favorers would not have gone 
over to the other, but would have sought for some one of 
homogeneous opinions. This consideration was sufficient 
to keep down all jealousy between us, and to guard our 
friendship from any disturbance by sentiments of rivalship; 
and I can say with truth, that one act of Mr. Adams's life, 
and one only, ever gave me a moments personal displea- 
sure. I did consider his last appointments to office as per- 
sonally unkind. They were from among my most ardent 
political enemies, from whom no faithful co-operation 
could ever be expected ; and laid me under the embarrass- 
ment of acting through men whose views were to defeat 
mine, or to encounter the odium of putting others in their 
places. It seems but common justice to leave a successor 
free to act by instruments of his own choice. If my re- 
spect for him did not permit me to ascribe the whole blame 
to the influence of others, it left something for friendship 
to forgive, and after brooding over it for some little time, 



72 THE CHARACTER OF 

and not always resisting the expression of it, I forgave it 
cordially, and returned to the same state of esteem and re- 
spect for him which had so long subsisted. Having come 
into life a little later than Mr. Adams, his career hps pre- 
ceded mine, as mine is followed by some other ; and it 
will probably be closed at the same distance after him 
which time originally placed between us. I maintain for 
him, and shall carry into private life, a uniform and high 
measure of respect and good will, and for yourself a sin- 
cere attachment." 

On the 22d of July, 1822, Mr. Jefferson wrote a second 
letter to Mrs. Adams, acknowledging the receipt of one 
from her, in which it would seem, she had complained of 
his extending his favors to some worthless foreigners who 
were then in the country, and engaged in writing against 
him and his administration. Among them was a man of 
the name of Callendar, a British subject, who was obliged 
to leave his own country to avoid prosecution for seditious 
publications against its government. Taking shelter here, 
which had unfortunately been considered as " a refuge for 
oppressed humanity " from other parts of the world, he 
had resumed his former employment, and was writing 
against our government. The fact that Mr. Jefferson had 
contributed a sum of money for the relief of this political 
vagabond had leaked out, and it would seem by his letter 
to Mrs. Adams, it had been mentioned in her letter to him, 
probably as evidence of his unfriendly feelings towards 
Mr. Adams. In answer to her, he says — 

" Your favor of the first instant was duly received, and 
I would not again have intruded on you but to rectify cer- 
tain facts which seem not to have been presented to you 
under their true aspect. My charities to Callendar are 
considered as rewards for his calumnies. As early, I 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 73 

think, as 1796, I was told in Philadelphia that Gallendar, 
the author of the ' Political Progress of Britain,' was in 
that city, a fugitive from persecution for having written 
that book, and in distress. I had read and approved the 
book. I considered him as a man of genius, unjustly per- 
secuted. I knew nothing of his private character, and im- 
mediately expressed my readiness to contribute to his re- 
lief and to serve him. It was a considerable time after 
that, on application from a person who thought of him as 
I did, I contributed to his relief, and afterwards repeated 
the contribution. Himself I did not see until long after, 
nor ever more than two or three times. When he first 
began to write, he told some useful truths in his coarse 
way ; but nobody sooner disapproved of his writing than 
I did, or wished more that he would be silent. My chari- 
ties to him were no more meant as encouragements to his 
scurrilities, than those I give the beggar at my door are 
meant as rewards for the vices of his life and to make 
them chargeable to myself. In truth, they would have 
been greater to him had he never written a word after the 
work for which he fled from Britain. With respect to the 
calumnies and falsehoods which writers and printers at 
large published against Mr. Adams, I was as far from 
stooping to any concern or approbation of them as Mr. 
Adams was respecting those of Porcupine, Fenno, or Rus- 
sell, who published volumes against me for every sentence 
vended by their opponents against Mr. Adams. But I 
never supposed Mr. Adams had any participation in the 
atrocities of these editors, or their writers. I knew myself 
incapable of that base warfare, and believed him to be so. 
On the contrary, whatever I may have thought of the acts 
of the administration of that day, I have ever borne testi- 
mony to Mr. Adams's personal worth ; nor was it ever im- 
7 



74 THE CHARACTER OF 

peached in my presence without a just vindication of it 
on my part. I never supposed that any person who 
knew either of us could believe that either of us meddled 
in that dirty work. But another fact is, that I ' liberated 
a wretch who was suffering for a libel against Mr. Adams.' 
I do not know who was the particular wretch alluded to ; 
but I discharged every person under punishment or prose- 
cution under the sedition law, because I considered and 
now consider that law to be a nullity as absolute and as 
palpable as if congress had ordered us to fall down and 
worship a golden image ; and that it was as much my 
duty to arrest its execution in every stage, as it would 
have been to have rescued from the fiery furnace those 
who should have been cast into it for refusing to worship 
the image. It was accordingly done in every instance, 
without asking what the offenders had done, or against 
whom they had offended, but whether the pains they were 
sufTering were inflicted under the pretended sedition law. 
It was certainly possible that my motives for contributing 
to the relief of Callendar, and liberating sufferers under 
the sedition law, might have been to protect, encourage 
and reward slander ; but they may also have been those 
which inspire ordinary charities to objects of distress, 
meritorious or not, or the obligation of an oath to protect 
the constitution violated by an unauthorized act of con- 
gress. Which of these were my motives must be decided 
by a regard to the general tenor of my life. On this I am 
not afraid to appeal to the nation at large, to posterity, and 
still less to that Being who sees himself our motives, who 
will judge us from his own knowledge of them, and not 
on the testimony of Porcupine or Fenno." 

These letters have been copied in order that the princi- 
ples advanced in a third epistle to the same lady, dated 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 75 

September 11, 1804, may be more fully understood. In 
the following extract from the last mentioned letter will 
be found sentiments of a most extravagant description re- 
specting the powers of the executive branch of the govern- 
ment over the judiciary ; and at the same time, the origin 
of those advanced at a subsequent period by Andrew 
Jackson, when claiming a similar authority over the same 
branch of the government, may be distinctly traced. 

" You seem to think it devolved on the judges to decide 
on the validity of the sedition law. But nothing in the 
constitution has given them a right to decide for the exec- 
utive, more than to the executive to decide for them. Both 
magistracies are equally independent in the sphere of ac- 
tion assigned to them. The judges, believing the law 
constitutional, had a right to pass a sentence of fine and 
imprisonment; because the power was placed in their 
hands by the constitution. But the executive, believing 
the law to be unconstitutional, were bound to remit the 
execution of it; because that power had been confided to 
them by the constitution. That instrument meant that its 
co-ordinate branches should be checks on each other. 
But the opinion which gives to the judges the right to 
decide what laws are constitutional and what not, not only 
for themselves in their own sphere of action, but for the 
legislature and executive also in their spheres^ would make 
the ptdiciary a despotic branchy 

This principle of construction, when carried into prac- 
tical effect, proceeds very far towards the destruction of 
the independence of the judiciary. According to this doc- 
trine in all cases to which it applies, the co-ordinate doc- 
trine, as here laid down, goes the length of determining 
that the executive, whenever it differs in opinion from the 
courts on a constitutional question, may interpose its par- 



76 THE CHARACTER OF 

doning power if the case happens to be of a kind which 
admits of its application ; or if not, to withhold its aid in 
carrying the sentence of the court into execution, and thus 
to annihilate the co-ordinate power of the judiciary. Such 
a construction is not only highly mischievous in its ten- 
dency and consequences, but it is a gross slander upon 
the convention who formed the constitution and the gen- 
eration of men by whom it was adopted. If once estab- 
lished as the rule of conduct, it must necessarily show that 
both the convention and the people fell into the gross error 
of providing, in their constitution, different branches of gov- 
ernment of such equal powers that one would be able en- 
tirely to prevent another from performing its appropriate 
duties. Such, however, was Mr. Jefferson's dislike to 
courts, such an inconvenience was an independent judi- 
ciary to him in the prosecution of his wild Utopian system 
of republicanism, as well as his schemes of personal am- 
bition, that, rather than be constantly embarrassed by a co- 
ordinate authority, established for the very purpose of 
keeping the proceedings of the other branches within the 
boundaries of the constitution, he would plunge into such 
a fatal absurdity in order to relieve himself from the in- 
cumbrance of judicial restraint. 

The friends of Mr. Adams, and, indeed, the community 
at large, were surprised to find the intimacy which had 
once subsisted between him and Mr. Jefferson, but which 
had been interrupted by the political occurrences they 
were obliged to encounter under the national government, 
renewed towards the close of their lives. In the year 
1812, a correspondence commenced between them, and on 
Mr. Jefferson's part, at least, it was prosecuted with a 
good degree of vigor; for in the fourth volume of his 
posthumous works there are nearly thirty letters from him 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 77 

to Mr. Adams. Those who are acquainted with the pe- 
culiar structure of that gentleman's mind will not be sur- 
prised to find that he was flattered into a renewal of their 
former intimacy. As a specimen of Mr. Jefferson's inge- 
nuity and skill in managing a case of this kind, and as 
additional proof of the art and address used by him in his 
letters to Mrs. Adams, the following passages of a letter 
from him to Mr. Adams, dated January 21, 1812, are 
adduced : — 

" A letter from you calls up recollections very dear to 
my mind. It carries me back to the times when, beset 
with difficulties and dangers, we were fellow laborers in 
the same cause, struggling for what is most valuable to 
man, his right of self-government. Laboring always at 
the same oar, with some wave ever ahead threatening to 
overwhelm us and yet passing harmless under our hark, 
we knew not how, we rode through the storm with heart 
and hand and made a happy port." 

" Of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, I 
see now living not more than half a dozen on your side of 
the Potomac, and on this side myself alone. You and I 
have been wonderfully spared, and myself with remarka- 
ble health and a considerable activity of body and mind. 
I am on horseback three or four hours of every day ; visit 
three or four times a year a possession I have ninety miles 
distant, performing the w^inter journey on horseback. I 
walk little, however, a single mile being too much for me ; 
and I live in the midst of my grandchildren, one of whom 
has lately promoted me to be a great grandfather. I have 
heard with pleasure that you also retain good health, and 
a greater power of exercise in walking than I do. But I 
would rather have heard this from yourself; and that wri- 
ting a letter like mine, full of egotisms and of details of 
7:^ 



78 THE CHARACTER OF 

your health, your habits, occupations and enjoyments, I 
should have the pleasure of knowing that, in the race of 
life, you do not keep in its physical decline the same dis- 
tance ahead of me which you have done in political honors 
and achievements. No circumstances have lessened the 
interest I feel in these particulars respecting yourself; 
none have suspended for one moment my sincere esteem 
for you, and I now salute you with unchanged affection 
and respect." 

The same show of friendly feeling and regard runs 
through the series of letters, and was continued until 
within three years of the time of their death. At the pe- 
riod of this renewed correspondence, Mr. Jefferson had no 
feelings of rivalship to indulge, nor any fears of being dis- 
appointed in his projects of ambition. His anxiety re- 
spected the future ; and he was obviously m.uch engaged 
in laying up materials for his own history. A reconcil- 
iation with such a man as Mr. Adams was, doubtless, an 
object of importance in his view of the subject; and it was 
accomplished in the manner that has been stated. 

In order to form a just estimate of Mr. Jefferson's sin- 
cerity in making these ardent professions of esteem and 
friendship for Mr. Adams, it v\^ill be proper to advert to an 
earlier expression of his feelings towards him. 

Early in the year 1791, the first part of Paine's Rights of 
Man was published in England, and a copy having been 
received in this country, it was republished in Philadel- 
phia. Prefixed to it was a recommendatory note from Mr. 
Jefferson to the publisher, addressed by the former to the 
latter. As this note alluded to a series of articles written 
by Mr. Adams, and published in the newspapers, which 
were spoken of by Mr. Jefferson as containing political 
heresies, and the reference was of such a nature and in 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 79 

such terms as were calculated to wound Mr. Adams's 
feelings, Mr. Jefierson thought it expedient to write an 
account of his agency in the matter to general Washing- 
ton, who was then absent from the seat of government on 
a journey through the southern states. The following is 
a copy of his letter on that occasion. It is not to be found 
among Mr. Jefierson's correspondence, but is contained in 
general Washington's writings, published by Mr. Sparks, 
volume 10, page 159. It is introduced by the editor of 
those volumes in the following manner. 

" During the absence of the president on his tour through 
the southern states, Mr. Jefferson wrote to him as follows, 
respecting his agency in the republication of the first part 
of Paine's 'Rights of Man.'" 

" Philadelphia, May 8th. The last week does not fur- 
nish one single public event worthy of communicating to 
you ; so that I have only to say, ' all is well.' Paine's an- 
swer to Burke's pamphlet begins to produce some squibs 
in our public papers. In Fenno's paper they are Burkites, 
in the others they are Painites. One of Fenno's was evi- 
dently from the author of the Discourses on Davila. I 
am afraid the indiscretion of a printer has committed me 
with my friend Mr. Adams, for whom, as one of the most 
honest and disinterested men alive, I have a cordial esteem, 
increased by long habits of concurrence in opinion in the 
days of his republicanism ; and even since his apostacy to he- 
reditary monarchy and nobility, though we differ, we difTer 
as friends should do. Beckley had the only copy of Paine's 
pamphlet and lent it to me, desiring when I should have 
read it, that I should send it to a Mr. J. B. Smith, who 
had asked it for his brother to reprint it. Being an utter 
stranger to J. B. Smith, both by sight and character, I wrote 
a note to explain to him why I (a stranger to him) sent 



80 THE CHARACTER OF 

him a pamphlet, namely, that Mr. Beckley had desired it ; 
and, to take off a little of the dryness of the note, I added, 
that I was glad to find that it was to be reprinted, that 
something would at length be said against the 'political 
heresies which had lately sprung up among us, and that I 
did not doubt our citizens would rally again round the 
standard of common sense. 

" That r had in my view the Discourses on Davila^ 
which had filled Fenno's papers for a twelve-month with- 
out contradiction, is certain ; but nothing was ever further 
from my thought than to become myself the contradictor be- 
fore the public. To my great astonishment, however, when 
the pamphlet came out, the printer had prefixed my note 
to it without having given me the most distant hint of it. 
Mr. x\dams will unquestionably take to himself the charge 
of political heresy, as conscious of his own views of draw- 
ing the present government to the form of the English 
constitution, and I fear will consider me as meaning to in- 
jure him in the public eye. I learn that some Anglomen 
have censured it in another point of view, as a sanction of 
Paine's principles tends to give oflfence to the British gov- 
ernment. Their real fear however, is, that this popular 
and republican pamphlet, taking wonderfully, is likely at a 
single stroke to wipe out all the unconstitutional doctrines 
which their bell-vjether Davila has been preaching for a 
twelve^month. 

" I certainly never made a secret of my being anti- 
monarchical, and anti-aristocratical ; but I am sincerely 
mortified to be thus brought forward on the puhlic stage, 
where to remain, to advance, or to retire, will be equally 
against my love of silence and quiet, and my abhorrence of 
dispute." 

It would have been more characteristic, if Mr. Jefferson 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 81 



had made this attack upon his friend, Mr. Adams, in a 
more secret and clandestine manner ; and all the regret that 
he experienced on this occasion, appears to have arisen 
from the circumstance, that his sentiments respecting that 
gentleman had been thus disclosed, and he brought upon 
the public stage, where to remain, advance or retire, would 
be against his love of silence. 



82 THE CHARACTER OF 



CHAPTER V. 

Mr. Jefferson's opinion that one generation of men cannot bind 
another, individually or collectively, to the fulfilment of obliga- 
tions — Letter to James Madison on the subject, dated Septem- 
ber, 1789 — to doctor Gem — to J. W. Eppes — to J. Cartwright, 
dated June, 1824 — Examination of his principle— Mr. Jefferson 
a mere partizan in politics— Letter to F. Hopkinson, March, 
1789 — Correspondence respecting the operations of the federal 
government, 1790, 1791 — Origin of the Ana — Monarchy — Con- 
troversy of those days between the advocates of kingly and re- 
publican government. 

Among the strange and extravagant opinions which Mr. 
Jefferson had formed, and of the soundness of which he 
had apparently reasoned himself into a full and fixed be- 
lief, was the notion that one generation of men had no 
right to bind another, either in a collective or individual 
capacity, to the fulfilment of obligations assumed by the 
former. In a letter to James Madison, dated Paris, Sep- 
tember 6, 1789, he says : — 

" I sit down to write to you without knowing by what 
occasion I shall send my letter. I do it because a subject 
comes into my head which I would wish to develope a lit- 
tle more than is practicable in the hurry of the moment of 
making up general despatches. 

" The question, whether one generation of men has a 
right to bind another, seems never to have been started 
either on this or our side of the water. Yet it is a ques- 
tion of such consequences as not only to merit decision, 
but a place also among the fundamental principles of every 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 83 

government. The course of reflection in which we are 
immersed here, on the elementary principles of society, 
has presented this question to my mind ; and that no such 
obligation can be transmitted 1 think very capable of proof. 
I set out on this ground, which I suppose to be self-evi- 
dent, that the earth belongs in usufruct to the living : that 
the dead have neither powers nor rights over it. The por- 
tion occupied by any individual ceases to be his when 
himself ceases to be, and reverts to the society. If the 
society has formed no rules for the appropriation of its 
lands in severalty, it will be taken by the first occupants, 
and these will generally be the wife and children of the 
decedent. If they have formed rules of appropriation, 
those rules may give it to the wife and children, or to 
some one of them, or to the legatee of the deceased. So 
they may give it to his creditor. But the child, the lega- 
tee, or creditor takes it not by natural right, but by a law 
of the society of which he is a member and to which he 
is subject. Thus no man can, by natural rights oblige 
the lands he occupied, or the persons who succeed him in 
that occupation, to the payment of debts contracted by 
him. For if he could, he might, during his own life, eat 
up the usufruct of the lands for several generations to 
come ; and then the lands would belong to the dead, and 
not to the living, which is the reverse of our principle. 

" What is true of every member of the society individu- 
ally, is true of them all collectively ; since the rights of the 
whole can be no more than the sum of the rights of the in- 
dividuals. To keep our ideas clear when applying them to 
a multitude, let us suppose a whole generation of men to be 
born on the same day, to attain mature age on the same day, 
and to die on the same day, leaving a succeeding generation 
in the moment of attaining their mature age, all together. 



84 THE CHARACTER OF 

Let the ripe age be supposed of twenty-one years, and their 
period of life thirty-four years more, that being the average 
term given by the bills of mortality to persons of twenty- 
one years of age. Each successive generation w'ould, in 
this way, come and go off the stage at a fixed moment, as 
individuals do now. Then, I say, the earth belongs to 
each of these generations during its course, fully and in 
its own right. The second generation receives it clear of 
the debts and incumbrances of the first, the third of the 
second, and so on. For if the first could charge it with a 
debt, then the earth would belong to the dead and not to 
the living generation. Then no generation can contract 
debts greater than may be paid during the course of its 
own existence. At twenty-one years of age, they may 
bind themselves and their lands for thirty-four years to 
come ; at twenty-two for thirty-three ; at twenty-three for 
thirty-two ; and at fifty-four for one year only ; because 
these are the terms of life which remain to them at the 
respective epochs. But a material difference must be 
noted between the succession of an individual and a whole 
generation. Individuals are parts only of a society, sub- 
ject to the laws of the whole. These laws may appropri- 
ate the portion of land occupied by a decedent to his credi- 
tor rather than to any other, or to his child on condition 
that he satisfies the creditor. But when a whole genera- 
tion, that is, the whole society, dies, as in the case we 
have supposed, and another generation or society succeeds, 
this forms a whole, and there is no superior who can give 
their territory to a third society, who may have lent money 
to their predecessors beyond their faculties of paying. 

" What is true of generations succeeding one another 
at fixed epochs, as has been supposed for clearer concep- 
tion, is true of those renewed daily, as is the actual course 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 85 

of nature. As a majority of the contracting generation 
will continue in being for thirty-four years, and a new 
majority will then come into possession, the former may 
extend their engagements to that term and no longer. 
The conclusion, then, is, that neither the representatives of 
a nation, nor the whole nation itself assembled, can validly 
engage debts beyond what they may pay in their own 
time ; that is to say, within thirty -four years from the date 
of the engagement. 

" To render this conclusion palpable, suppose that Louis 
the XIV. and XV. had contracted debts in the name of 
the French nation to the amount of ten thousand milliards, 
and that the whole had been contracted in Holland. The 
interest of this sum would be five hundred milliards, which 
is the whole rent-roll or net proceeds of the territory of 
France. Must the present generation have retired from 
the territory in which nature produces them and ceded it 
to the Dutch creditors ? No ; they have the same rights 
over the soil on which they were produced as the preced- 
ing generations had. They derive these rights not from 
them, but from nature. They, then, and their soil are by 
nature clear of the debts of their predecessors. To pre- 
sent this in another point of view, suppose Louis XV. 
and his cotemporary generation had said to the money- 
lenders of Holland, Give us money that we may eat, drink 
and be merry in our day ; and on condition that you will 
demand no interest until the end of thirty-four years, you 
shall then forever after receive an annual interest of fifteen 
per cent. The money is lent on these conditions, is di- 
vided among the people, eaten, drunk, and squawdered. 
Would the present generation be obliged to apply the 
produce of the earth and of their labor to replace their dis- 
sipation ? Not at all. 
8 



86 THE CHARACTER OF 

" I suppose that the received opinion, that the public 
debts of one generation devolve on the next, has been 
suggested by our seeing habitually in private life, that he 
who succeeds to lands is required to pay the debts of his 
predecessor ; without considering that this requisition is 
municipal only, not moral, flowing from the will of the 
society which has found it convenient to appopriate the 
lands of a decedent on the condition of a payment of his 
debts ; but that between society and society, or generation 
and generation, there is no municipal obligation, no um- 
pire but the law of nature. 

" The interest of the national debt of France being, in 
fact, but a two thousandth part of its rent-roll, the payment 
of it is practicable enough ; and so becomes a question 
merely of honor or of expediency. But with respect to 
future debts, would it not be wise and just for that nation 
to declare, in the constitution they are forming, that nei- 
ther the legislature nor the nation itself can validly con- 
tract more debt than they may pay within their own age, 
or within the term of thirty-four years ? and that all fu- 
ture contracts shall be deemed void as to what shall re- 
main unpaid at the end of thirty-four years from their date. 
This would put the lenders, and the borrowers also, on 
their guard. By reducing, too, the faculty of borrowing 
v/ithin its natural limits, it would bridle the spirit of war, 
to which too free a course has been procured by the inat- 
tention of money-lenders to this law of nature, that suc- 
ceeding generations are not responsible for the preceding. 

" On similar ground it may be proved that no society 
can make a perpetual constitution, or even a perpetual 
law. The earth belongs always to the living generation ; 
they may manage it, then, and what proceeds from it, as 
they please during their usufruct. They are masters, too, 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 87 

of their own persons, and consequently may govern them 
as they please. But persons and property make the sum 
of the objects of government. The constitution and the 
laws of their predecessors are extinguished, then, in their 
natural course, with those whose will gave them being. 
This could preserve that being until it ceased to be itself, 
and no longer. Every constitution, then, and every law 
naturally expires at the end of thirty-four years. If it be 
enforced longer, it is an act of force and not of right. It 
may be said that the succeeding generation exercising, in 
fact, the power of repeal, this leaves them as free as if the 
constitution or law had been expressly limited to thirty- 
four years only. In the first place, this objection admits 
the right in proposing an equivalent. But the power of 
repeal is not an equivalent. It might be, indeed, if every 
form of government were so perfectly contrived ihat the 
will of the majority could always be obtained fairly and 
without impediment. But this is true of no for.n. The 
people cannot assemble themselves ; their representation 
is unequal and vicious. Various checks are opposed to 
every legislative proposition. Factions get possession of 
the public councils, bribery corrupts them, personal inter- 
ests lead them astray from the general interests of their 
constituents; and other impediments arise so as to prove 
to every practical man that a law of limited duration is 
much more manageable than one which needs a repeal. 

" This principle that the earth belongs to the living and 
not to the dead is of very extensive application and con- 
sequences in every country, and most especially in France. 
It enters into the resolution of the questions, whether the 
nation may change the descent of lands holden in tail ; 
whether they may change the appropriation of lands given 
anciently to the church, to hospitals, colleges, orders of 



88 THE CHARACTER OF 

chivalry, and otherwise in perpetuity ; whether they may 
abolish the charges and privileges attached on lands, in- 
cluding the whole catalogue ecclesiastical and feudal ; it 
goes to hereditary offices, authorities and jurisdictions, to 
hereditary orders, distinctions and appellations, to perpet- 
ual monopolies in commerce, the arts or sciences, with a 
long train oi et ceteras ; and it renders the question of re- 
imbursement a question of generosity and not of right. 
In all these cases the legislature of the day could author- 
ize such appropriations and establishments for their own 
time, but no longer ; and the present holders, even where 
they or their ancestors have purchased, are in the case of 
bona fide purchasers of what the seller had no right to 
convey. 

" Turn the subject in your mind, and particularly as 
to the power of contracting debts, and develop it with 
that cogent logic which is so peculiarly yours. Your sta- 
tion in the councils of our country gives you an opportu- 
nity of producing it to public consideration, of forcing it 
into discussion. At first blush it may be laughed at as the 
dream of a theorist, but examination will prove it to be 
solid and salutary. It would furnish matter for a fine 
preamble to our first law for appropriating the public rev- 
enue ; and it will exclude, at the threshhold of our new 
government, the ruinous and contagious errors of this 
quarter of the globe, which have armed despots with 
means which nature does not sanction for binding in 
chains their fellow-men. We have already given, in ex- 
ample, one effectual check to the dog of war by transfer- 
ing the power of declaring war from the executive to the 
legislative body, from those who are to spend to those 
who are to pay. I should be pleased to see this second 
obstacle held out by us, also, in the first instance. Na 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 89 

nation can make a declaration against the validity of long 
contracted debts so disinterestedly as we, since we do not 
owe a shilling which will not be paid, principal and inter- 
est, by the measures you have taken within the time of 
our own lives." 

Immediately after the letter from which the foregoing 
extracts are made, in the same volume of Mr. Jefferson's 
works, is one addressed to Dr. Gem, without date of time 
or place, of which the following is a copy : — 

" The hurry in which I wrote my letter to Mr. Madison, 
which is in your hands, occasioned an inattention to the 
difference between generations succeeding each other at 
fixed epochs and generations renewed daily and hourly. 
It is true that in the former case the generation when at 
twenty-one years of age may contract a debt for thirty- 
four years because a majority of them will live so long. 
But a generation consisting of all ages, and which legis- 
lates by all its members above the age of twenty-one years, 
cannot contract for so long a time because their majority 
will be dead much sooner. Buffon gives us a table of 
twenty-three thousand nine hundred and ninety-four 
deaths, stating the ages at which they happened. To 
draw from these the result I have occasion for, I suppose 
a society in which twenty-three thousand nine hundred 
and ninety-four persons are born every year, and live to 
the age stated in Buffon's table. Then the following in- 
ferences may be drawn. Such a society will consist con- 
stantly of six hundred and seventeen thousand seven hun- 
dred and three persons, of all ages. Of those living at 
any one instant of time, one half will be dead in twenty- 
four years and eight months. In such a society, ten thou- 
sand six hundred and seventy-five will arrive every year 
at the age of twenty-one years complete. It will Constant- 
sa 



90 THE CHARACTER OF 

ly have three hundred and forty-eight thousand four hun- 
dred and seventeen persons, of all ages above twenty-one 
years ; and the half of those of tw^enty-one years and up- 
wards living at any one instant of time will be dpad in 
eighteen years and eight months, or say nineteen years. 

" Then the contracts, constitutions and laws of every 
such society become void in nineteen years from their 
date." 

Lest it should be supposed that these letters were written 
when Mr. Jefferson's mind was filled with enthusiastic 
zeal in the cause of liberty, by the first breaking out of the 
French revolution, and that age and experience might 
have cooled his ardor on that intoxicating subject, it will 
appear that he carried the wild and impracticable notions 
which he had thus early imbibed along the course and up 
to the close of his long life. In a letter to John W. Eppes, 
his son-in-law, and as it would seem, at the time, chair- 
man of the comimittee of ways and means in the house of 
representatives of the United States, dated June 24, 1813, 
he says : — 

" The earth belongs to the living, not to the dead. The 
will and the power of man expire with his life by nature's 
law. Some societies give it an artificial continuance 
for the encouragement of industry ; some refuse it, as our 
aboriginal neighbors, whom we call barbarians. The gen- 
erations of men may be considered as bodies or corpora- 
tions. Each generation has the usufruct of the earth dur- 
ing the period of its continuance. When it ceases to ex- 
ist, the usufruct passes on to the succeeding generation, 
free and unincumbered, and so on, successively, from one 
generation to another forever. We may consider each 
generation as a distinct nation, with a right, by the will of 
its majority, to bind themselves, but none to bind the sue- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 91 

ceeding generation more than the inhabitants of another 
country. Or the case may be likened to the ordinary one 
of a tenant for life, who may hypothecate the land for his 
debts during the continuance of his usufruct ; but at his 
death the reversioner (who is for life only) receives it exon- 
erated from all burthen. The period of a generation, or 
the term of its life, is determined by the laws of mortality, 
which varying a little only in different climates offer a 
general average to be found by observation." 

He then adverts to Buffon's theory respecting the period 
of human life, and after stating it much in the same man- 
ner as in a former letter already quoted, he says — " At 
nineteen years, then, from the date of a contract, the ma- 
jority of the contractors are dead and their contract with 
them." He then states a case for the purpose of illustra- 
ting the principle for which he is contending, which de- 
stroys one half the adult citizens of the community which 
forms the basis of his estimate ; and then says — " Till 
then," that is, to the time of their deaths, " being the ma- 
jority, they may rightfully lay the interest of their debt an- 
nually on themselves and their fellow-revellers, or fellow- 
champions. But at that period, say at this moment, a new 
majority have come into place, in their own rights, and 
not under the rights, the conditions or laws of their prede- 
cessors. Are they bound to acknowledge the debt, to con- 
sider the preceding generation as having had a right to 
eat up the whole soil of their country in the course of a 
a life, to alienate it from them (for it would be an aliena- 
tion to the creditors), and would they think themselves 
either legally or morally bound to give up their country 
and emigrate to another for subsistence ? Every one will 
say no : that the soil is the gift of God to the living, as 
much as it had been to the deceased generation ; and that 



92 THE CHARACTER OF 

the laws of nature impose no obligation on them to pay 
this debt. And although, like some other natural rights, 
this has not yet entered into any declaration of rights, it 
is no less a law, and ought to be acted on by honest gov- 
ernments." 

In a letter to major John Cartrwight, dated June 5, 
1824, two years only before his death, (vol. 4, 396,) he says, 
" Can one generation bind another, and all others, in suc- 
cession for ever? I think not. The Creator has made 
the earth for the benefit of the living, not the dead. Rights 
and powers can only belong to persons, not to things, not 
to mere matter unendowed with will. The dead are not 
even things. The particles of matter which composed their 
bodies make part now of the bodies of other animals, 
vegetables or minerals of a thousand forms. To what, 
then, are attached the rights they held while in the form 
of men ? A generation may bind itself as long as its ma- 
jority continues in life ; when that has disappeared, anoth- 
er majority is in place, holds all the rights and powers 
their predecessors once held, and may change their laws 
and institutions to suit themselves. Nothing, then, is un- 
changeable but the inherent and unalienable rights of 
man." 

The general principle here advanced is, that no man 
can by natural right subject the lands in his occupation, or 
the persons who may succeed him in that occupancy, to the 
payment of his debts. After a pretty long train of reason- 
ing to establish this principle, Mr. Jefferson comes to this 
result — " That neither the representatives of a nation, nor 
the whole nation itself assembled, can validly engage 
debts beyond what they may pay in their own time, that 
is to say, within thirty-four years of the date of the en- 
gagement, or by a different estimate of life in nineteen 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 93 

years." In the first place, it would seem necessary to 
establish the great point, that all mankind must die at 
fifty-four years of age ; because the principle must fail in 
its application in every instance where a man's life is pro- 
longed beyond that period. It is true, that he makes out 
an average from Bufibn's estimate of the duration of hu- 
man life, which goes to fix that as the average extent of 
existence ; but as the privilege of being freed from the ob- 
ligation of pre-contracted debts is claimed to be a natural, 
inherent, inalienable right of man, it is not to be regulated 
or controlled by the laws of society. Indeed, if once sub- 
jected to the laws of the civil state, its natural character is 
lost; for if a majority of the individuals in a community 
can determine anything about it, they can determine 
everything about it. A natural right is not under the con- 
trol of a majority. It adheres to the individual in all situ- 
ations ; and nothing but the exercise of absolute despotic 
power can deprive him of his inherent privilege. 

But it may be difficult, in the second place, to keep 
every individual belonging to the majority alive during 
the thirty-four years after he has attained the full age of 
twenty-one. Some of them undoubtedly will die ; and it 
would not be strange if at least half of them should drop 
by the way. What would become of the principle in such 
a case ? and especially if a whole generation should, ac- 
cording to the supposition, all be born at a moment ? 
That it is, in Mr. Jefferson's phraseology, the usufruct 
only of the ground which a living man can claim, need 
not be denied, because it is certain that a dead man can 
neither till the ground nor use its fruits. Nor, in mtiny 
cases, can a sick man do either. But it does not follow, 
that because he cannot cultivate the soil, nor eat its pro- 
ducts, that the right in that soil belongs to the man who 



94 THE CHARACTER OF 

can first enter and take possession of it after his death, and 
hold it free from all liability to discharge the honest debts 
of the former owner. This can never be admitted until 
the laws and institutions of society are abolished, and men 
are reduced once more to a savage state. There is no 
middle ground where they can meet, and live together in 
an uncivilized and even barbarous condition, in which 
every man's will must be his law, and every man's arm 
his own minister of justice. Besides, if it is to depend in 
any degree upon the votes of " the society," it yields the 
whole controversy ; because where men vote they must 
submit to a majority; and where a majority govern by 
general consent, it is a civil state in which all their af- 
fairs must necessarily be governed by the general rule — 
a rule to which all must submit. 

Mr. Jefferson does not confine his doctrines to the mere 
disposition of lands and the obligation to pay either pub- 
lic or private debts. He goes far beyond this. He says, 
" But persons and property make the sum of the objects of 
government. The constitution and the laws of their pre- 
decessors are extinguished, then, in their natural course 
with those whose will gave them being. This could pre- 
serve that being until it ceased to be itself, and no longer. 
Every constitution, then, and every law naturally expires 
at the end of thirty-four years. If it be enforced longer, 
it is an act of force and not of right." 

The plain and necessary meaning of this is, that no 
constitution of government, and no law enacted under such 
constitution, can regularly exist more than thirty-four 
years, but every community living under a constitution 
formed and adopted by their own voluntary acts, will at 
the end of that short period be thrown into a state of na- 
ture, destitute of all government and all law, and every indi- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 95 

vidual belonging to such a conimunity will, of course, be 
left to do that which is right in his own eyes. Agreeably 
to this principle, the United States would be now consid- 
erably advanced towards the end of the natural life of a 
second constitution — forty years having elapsed since the 
adoption of the present. The meaning of this is, that 
every country which is favored with a constitution, formed 
and adopted by their own free choice, must have a politi- 
cal revolution every thirty-four years ; and this resulting 
from an inherent defect in the very nature of civil society, 
which is incapable of establishing or forming any system 
of government which can last longer than that period. 
Nobody who sees such sentiments as these from Mr. Jef- 
ferson can be surprised at hearing him, when alluding to 
Shay's insurrection, exclaim, " God forbid we should ever 
be twenty years without such a rebellion." — " What signi- 
fy a few lives in a century or two ? The tree of liberty 
must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of pat- 
riots and tyrants. It is its natural manure." 

But, it may be asked, what would have been the condi- 
tion of the United States, if at the time of the organiza- 
tion of the new government, instead of George Washing- 
ton, Thomas Jefferson had been placed at the head of it, 
with all the influence and control over a majority of the 
country which he afterwards acquired and exercised? 
The great fundamental principles of the government, and 
of course its future direction and character, would have 
been regulated and influenced by a wild enthusiastic the- 
orist, destitute of any practical views of national aflTairs, 
but regulated by a visionary and philosophical standard, 
principles of the most absurd, preposterous and mischiev- 
ous character would have been established — such as 
would have plunged the public concerns into inextricable 



96 THE CHARACTER OF 

disorder and would necessarily have terminated in inevi- 
table ruin. 

Tucker's Life of Jefferson contains Mr. Madison's an- 
swer to the letter from Mr. Jefferson to him, whith has 
been quoted in this work. Much as he was devoted to 
Mr. Jefferson's opinions on most subjects, he could not 
yield to the extravagance of the sentiments which that 
letter contains. Was it to be expected that men of sense 
and sobriety would feel any confidence in a man who en- 
tertained such wild, visionary, and impracticable senti- 
ments as those to which this corespondence relates ? It 
is certain that the federalists did not. 

" As the reader may be curious to see Mr. Madison's 
views of this novel principle in legislation, an extract of 
his reply to the preceding letter is here subjoined ; and 
although we may be disposed to question with him both 
the justice and the expediency of such a principle adopted 
without discrimination, yet we cannot but yield our re- 
spect to the ever active spirit of benevolence which dic- 
tated it. Mr. Jefferson's very sanguine temper was never 
so likely to mislead his judgment as in schemes for the 
promotion of human happiness and advancing the condi- 
tion of civil society." 

"New York, February 4, 1790. 

" Dear sir, — Your favor of January 9, inclosing one of 
September last, did not get to hand until a few days ago. 
The idea which the latter evolves is a great one, and sug- 
gests many interesting reflections to legislators, particularly 
when contracting and providing for public debts. Wheth- 
er it can be received in the extent to which your reason- 
ings carry it, is a question which I ought to turn more in 
my thoughts than I have yet been able to do, before J 
should be justified in making up a full opinion on it. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. • 97 

" My first thoughts lead me to view the doctrine as not, 
in all respects, compatible with the course of human af- 
fairs. I will endeavor to sketch the grounds of my scep- 
ticism." 

[Mr. M. then copies Mr. Jefferson's main proposition, 
beginning with the passage in his letter, '' As the earth 
belongs to the living," &;c., and says, " This I understand 
to be the outline of the argument."] 

" The acts of a political society may be divided into 
three classes : — 

" 1. The fundamental constitution of the government. 

"2. Laws involving some stipulation which renders 
them irrevocable at the will of the legislature. 

" 3. Laws involving no such irrevocable quality. 

" 1. However applicable in theory the doctrine may be 
to a constitution, it seems liable, in practice, to some 
weighty objections. 

" Would not a government ceasing of necessity at the 
end of a given term, unless prolonged by some constitu- 
tional act previous to its expiration, be too subject to the 
casualty and consequences of an interregnum ? 

" Would not a government so often revised become too 
mutable and novel to retain that share of prejudice in its 
favor which is a salutary aid to the most rational govern- 
ment? 

" Would not such a periodical revision engender perni- 
cious factions that might not otherwise come into existence, 
and agitate the public mind more frequently and more 
violently than might be expedient ? 

" 2. In the second class of acts involving stipulations, 
must not exceptions, at least, to the doctrine be admitted ? 

" If the earth be the gift of nature to the living, their 
title can extend to the earth in its natural state only. The 
9 



98 THE CHARACTER OF 

improvements made by the dead form a debt against the 
living who take the benefit of them. This debt cannot 
be otherwise discharged than by a proportionate obedience 
to the will of the authors of the improvements. 

" But a case less liable to be controverted may, perhaps, 
be stated. Debts may be incurred with a direct view to 
the interest of the unborn as well as of the living. Such 
are debts for repelling conquest, the evils of which descend 
through many generations. Debts may be incurred prin- 
cipally for the benefit of posterity; such, perhaps, is the 
debt incurred by the United States. In these instances 
the debt might not be dischargeable within the term of 
nineteen years. 

" There seems, then, to be some foundation in the na- 
ture of things, in the relation which one generation bears 
to another, for the descent of obligations from one to anoth- 
er. Equity may require it. Mutual good may be pro- 
moted by it ; and all that seems indispensable in stating 
the account between the dead and the living is to see that 
the debts against the latter do not exceed the advances 
made by the former. Few of the incumbrances entailed 
on nations by their predecessors would bear a liquidation 
even on this principle. 

'* 3. Objections to the doctrine as applied to the third 
class of acts must be merely practical. But in that view 
alone they appear to be material. 

" Unless such temporary laws should be kept in force 
by acts regularly anticipating their expiration, all the 
.rights depending on positive laws, that is, most of the 
rights of property, would become absolutely defunct, and 
the most violent struggles ensue between the parties in- 
terested in reviving and those interested in reforming the 
•antecedent state of property. Nor does it seem improb- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 99 

able that such an event might be suffered to take place. 
The checks and difficulties opposed to the passage of laws, 
which render the power of repeal inferior to an opportu- 
nity to reject, as a security against oppression, would 
have rendered the latter an insecure provision against 
anarchy. Add to this, that the very possibility of an 
event so hazardous to the rights of property could not but 
depreciate its value ; that the approach of the crisis would 
increase the effect ; that the frequent return of periods su- 
perseding all the obligations depending on antecedent laws 
and usages must, by weakening the sense of them, co-op- 
erate with motives to licentiousness already too powerful ; 
and that the general uncertainty and vicissitudes of such 
a state of things would, on one side, discourage every 
useful effort of steady industry pursued under the sanction 
of existing laws, and, on the other, give an immediate ad- 
vantage to the more sagacious over the less sagacious part 
of society. 

" I can find no relief from such embarrassments but in 
the received doctrine that a tacit assent may be given to 
established governments and laws, and that this assent is 
to be inferred from the omission of an express revocation. 
It seems more practicable to remedy by well constituted 
governments the pestilent operation of this doctrine, in the 
unlimited sense in which it is at present received, than it 
is to find a remedy for the evils necessarily springing 
from an unlimited admission of the contrary doctrine. 

" Is it not doubtful whether it be possible to exclude 
wholly the idea of an implied or tacit assent, without sub- 
verting the very foundation of civil society ? 

" On what principle is it that the voice of the majority 
binds the minority ? 

" It does not result, I conceive, from a law of nature, 
but from compact founded on utility. 



100 THE CHARACTER OF 

" A greater proportion might be required by the funda- 
mental constitution of society, if under any particular cir- 
cumstances it were judged eligible. Prior, therefore, to 
the establishment of this principle, unanimity was neces- 
sary ; and rigid theory accordingly pre-supposes the assent 
of every individual to the rule which subjects the minority 
to the will of the majority. If this assent cannot be given 
tacitly, or be not implied where no positive evidence for- 
bids, no person born in society, could on attaining ripe 
age, be bound by any acts of the majority; and either a 
unanimous renewal of every law would be necessary as 
often as a new member should be added to the society, or 
the express consent of every new member be obtained to 
the rule by which the majority decides for the whole." 
(Vol. 1, page 291.) 

The federalists were opposed to Mr. Jefferson on the 
ground that he was a mere partizan in politics, and almost 
immediately after his arrival in this country from France, 
in the year 1789, he first formed and then placed himself 
at the head of the party opposed to the constitution and to 
the measures of the government under general Washing- 
ton's administration, and as their leader, attempted to pro- 
mote his own ambitious views and interests by all the means 
which he could devise and employ for the purpose. One of 
the most efficient of those means was slander. The feder- 
alists believed him to be capable of descending to measures 
of the most unworthy nature for the purpose of accom- 
plishing his favorite object, viz: — his own aggrandizement. 
In their opinion, no man was more fond of popularity; and 
they believed that no man was less scrupulous about the 
means he employed to obtain it. They believed that the 
world never produced a more accomplished demagogue ; 
and that no man ever lived who understood the art of se- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 101 

curing popular favor, or of managing popular feeling, so 
as to make it subserve his own interests, better than he. 
That they understood his character in these respects, will 
be apparent to those who will read the following extracts 
from his works. 

In a letter to F. Hopkinson, dated Paris, March 13, 
1789, (vol. 2, Jefferson's Works, page 438,) he says — "I 
am not a federalist, because I never submitted the whole 
system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men 
whatever, in religion, in philosophy, in politics, or in any- 
thing else, where I was capable of thinking for myself 
Such an addiction is the last degradation of a free and 
moral agent. If I could not go to heaven but with a party, 
I would not go there at all. Therefore, I protest to you, I 
am not of the party of federalists. But I am much farther 
from that of the anti-federalists. I approved from the first 
moment of the great mass of what is in the new constitu- 
tion ; the consolidation of the government ; the organiza- 
tion into executive, legislative, and judiciary; the subdi- 
vision of the legislative ; the happy compromise of interests 
between the great and little states by the different manner 
of voting in the different houses ; the voting by persons 
instead of states; the qualified negative on laws given to 
the executive, which, however, I should have liked better 
if associated with the judiciary also, as in New York ; and 
the power of taxation. I thought at first that the latter 
might have been limited. A little reflection soon convinced 
me it ought not to be. What I disapproved from the first 
moment, also, was the want of a bill of rights to guardl 
liberty against the legislative as well as executive branches 
of the government, that is to say, to secure freedom in re- 
ligion, freedom of the press, freedom from monopolies, 
freedom from unlawful imprisonment, from a permanent 
9^ 



102 THE CHARACTER OF 

military, and a trial by jury, in all cases determinable by 
the laws of the land. I disapproved also the perpetual re- 
eligibility of the president. To these points of disappro- 
bation I adhere." — " These are my sentiments, by which 
you will see I was right in saying, I am neither federal- 
ist nor anti-federalist ; that I am of neither party, nor yet 
a trimmer between parties. These, my opinions, I wrote 
within a few hours after I had read the constitution to 
one or two friends in America. I had not then read one 
single word printed on the subject. I had never had an 
opinion in politics or religion which I was afraid to own. 
A costive reserve on these subjects might have procured 
me more esteem from some people, but less from myself. 
My great wish is to go on in a strict but silent performance 
of my duty ; to avoid attracting notice, and to keep my 
name out of the newspapers, because I find the pain of a 
little censure, even when it is unfounded, is more acute 
than the pleasure of much praise." 

On the 7th of August, 1790, Mr. Jefferson, in a letter 
to M. Pinto, says — " The new government (of the United 
States) has now, for some time been under way, and so 
far gives a confidence that it will answer its purposes." 

On the 13th of May, 1791, in a letter to Fulwar Skip- 
with, he says — " In general, our affairs are proceeding in 
a train of unparalleled prosperity. This arises from the 
real improvements of our government ; from the unbound- 
ed confidence reposed in it by the people, their zeal to 
support it, and their conviction that a solid union is the 
best rock of their safety ; from the favorable seasons 
which, for some years past, have co-operated with a fertile 
soil and genial climate to increase the productions of agri- 
culture ; and from the growth of industry, economy, and 
domestic manufactures. So that I believe I may say, with 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 103 

truth, that there is not a nation under the sun enjoying 
more present prosperity, nor with more in prospect." 

Something more than eighty pages at the end of the 
fourth volume of Mr. Jefferson's " Correspondence," are 
made up of what is called " Ana."" The matter of these 
pages is said to have been taken from " memoradums on 
loose scraps of paper," made by him when he held the of- 
fice of secretary of state. They were preserved, he says, 
" for their testimony against the only history of that period, 
which pretends to have been compiled from authentic and 
unpublished documents." The very first sentence contain- 
ed in them after the introductory notice from which the 
above passage is copied, is as follows : — 

" But a short review of facts =^ =^ ^ ^ =^ will show, 
that the contests of that day were contests of principle be- 
tween the advocates of republican and those of kingly 
government, and that had not the former made the efforts 
they did, our government would have been, even at this 
early day, a very different thing from what the successful 
issue of those efforts have made it." 

In what manner this blank should be filled, probably no 
person living knows. Let it be as it may, it will be diffi- 
cult to reconcile the language made use of in it with the 
declarations in the letters to Messrs. Pinto and Skipwith 
above referred to. But as this is not a solitary instance in 
which Mr. Jefferson's remarks will be found to be directly 
at variance with each other, a mere cursory notice of their 
contradictory character will be sufficient for the present 
purpose. 



104 THE CHARACTER OF 



CHAPTER VI. 

Annapolis Convention, 1786 — Difference of opinion in that body 
between a republican or kingly government — Account of that 
Convention from Pitkin's History — From the Life of Jay — At- 
tempts of the friends of a kingly government, at the Convention, 
to prevent the formation of a republican government, for the 
purpose of introducing a monarchy — The charge shown by facts 
to be unfounded — Only five of the thirteen States represented — 
His knowledge of the Convention derived from hearsay — No 
proof of it has ever been adduced — The same charge made 
against the same party at the Convention which framed the 
Constitution in 1787 — The Ana utterly unworthy of credit — Mr. 
Jefferson's enmity against A. Hamilton, its origin and its object 
— The charge of monarchical principles intended to promote 
his own interests. 

Mr. Jefferson proceeds in his Ana to say that " The 
want of some authority which should procure justice to 
the public creditors, and an observance of treaties with 
foreign nations, produced, some time after, the call of a 
convention of the states at Annapolis. Although at this 
meeting a difference of opinion was evident on the q7ie.s- 
tio7i of a republican or kingly government, yet, so general 
through the states was the sentiment in favor of the for- 
mer that the friends of the latter confined themselves to a 
course of obstruction only, and delay, to everything pro- 
posed ; they hoped that nothing being done, and all things 
going from bad to worse, a kingly government might be 
usurped and submitted to by the people as better than 
anarchy and wars, internal and external, the certain con- 
sequences of the present want of a general government. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 105 

The eflfect of their manoeuvres, with the defective atten- 
dance of deputies from the states, resulted in the measure 
of calling a more general convention to be held at Phila- 
delphia." 

The following account of the Annapolis convention is 
copied from Pitkin's Political and Civil History of the 
United States, (vol. 2, page 218—19.) 

" In January 1786, the legislature of that state (Vir- 
ginia) appointed a number of gentlemen ' to meet such 
commissioners as were or might be appointed by the other 
states in the union, at such time and place as should be 
agreed upon by said commissioners, to take into consider- 
ation the trade and commerce of the United States ; to 
consider how far a uniform system in their commercial in- 
tercourse and regulations might be necessary to their 
common interest and permanent harmony ; and to report 
to the several states such an act relative to this great ob- 
ject as, when unanimously ratified by them, would enable 
the United States, in congress assembled, effectually to 
provide for the same.' It was afterwards agreed that this 
meeting should be held at Annapolis, in Maryland, in 
September of the same year. Commissioners from the 
states of Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey 
and New York only attended. Delegates were appointed 
by New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and 
North Carolina, but did not attend. In consequence of 
such a partial representation of the states, the commis- 
sioners present thought it improper to proceed on the im- 
portant business with which they were intrusted. They 
were now more than ever sensible of the necessity of a 
general convention of all the states, and were also satisfied 
that the powers of this convention should extend to other 
objects than merely the regulation of trade and commerce. 



lOQ THE CHARACTER OF 

They, therefore, drew up a report and addressed to the 
states, in which, after stating the defects of the federal 
government, and that the situation of the United States 
' was delicate and critical, calling for an exertion of the 
virtue and wisdom of all the members of the confederacy,' 
they recommended to all the states to concur in the ap- 
pointment of commissioners to meet at Philadelphia on 
the second Monday in May, 1787, to take into considera- 
tion the situation of the United States, to devise such 
further provisions as should appear to them necessary to 
render the constitution of the federal government adequate 
to the exigencies of the Union." 

In the " Life of John Jay," (vol. 1, page 254) there is 
the following account of this convention: — "In January, 
1786, the legislature of Virginia proposed a convention of 
delegates, to be appointed by state legislatures, and to 
meet at Annapolis the ensuing September, to devise a 
uniform system of commercial regulations which should 
be binding on the whole confederacy when ratified by all 
the states. It was to this convention that Mr. Jay alluded 
in his letter to general Washington of the 16th of March, 
1786. ' The convention proposed by Virginia may do 
some good, and would, perhaps, do more if it compre- 
hended more objects.' 

" The limited object of the convention failed to excite 
general interest, and the required unanimity of thirteen 
states prevented much efTort to secure what was supposed 
to be unattainable. Only five states were represented in 
the convention, and their delegates wisely abstained from 
taking measures in relation to the subject for which they 
had been convened. They, however, took a step which 
led to important results. They recommended a con- 
vention of delegates from all the states to be held at Phil- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 107 

adelphia the ensuing spring, for revising the articles of 
confedeiation." 

It was at this convention, composed as it was of a 
minority in numbers of the states, that Mr. Jefferson, in 
the passage above quoted from his " Ana,"" says, " a dif- 
ference of opinion was evident on the question of a repub- 
lican and kingly government, yet so general through the 
states was the sentiment in favor of the former, that the 
friends of the latter confined themselves to a course of ob- 
struction only, and delay, to everything proposed ; they 
hoped, that nothing being done, and all things going from 
bad to worse, a kingly government might be usurped and 
submitted to by the people as better than anarchy and wars, 
internal and external, the certain consequences of the pre- 
sent want of a general government." It is difficult to give 
credit to the assertions respecting this convention contain- 
ed in the foregoing passage. In the first place, as but five 
of the thirteen states were represented in that body, they 
could not of course enter upon the business for which they 
were appointed. It is therefore not to be supposed that 
they would engage in a discussion of the comparative 
merits and advantages of the tw^o kinds of government; 
especially as they were not sent on an errand which re- 
quired such a discussion. The commission given by the 
legislature of Virginia to their own delegates was " to take 
into consideration the trade and commerce of the United 
States ; to consider how far a uniform system, in their com- 
mercial intercourse and regulations, might be necessary to 
their common interest and permanent harmony ; and to re- 
port to the several states such an act relative to this great ob- 
ject as, when uTianimondy ratified by them, would enable 
the United States, in congress assembled, effectually to pro- 
vide for the same." Although this measure originated with 



108 THE CHARACTER OF 

the state of Virginia, its object, as far as its future opera- 
tion and effects were concerned, was general. The sub- 
ject referred to them, ahhough national, was exclusively 
commercial; they were to agree on the form of a bill 
to secure that object, which, when it had received the 
unanimous assent of the thirteen states in congress, was 
to become a general law. But there being only five states 
present, they had no power to act at all ; and, of course, 
separated, without doing anything. Can it be believed 
that in a body thus constituted, and thus situated, a ques- 
tion could have arisen on the comparative merits of re- 
publican and kingly governments ? 

Besides, would Mr. Jefferson mean to convey the idea 
that Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey, 
to say nothing of Delaware, actually sent persons to repre- 
sent them on such an occasion who were monarchists in 
principle and feeling? It would be a gratifying circum- 
stance if the names of those v^rho attended at Annapolis 
from those states could be ascertained, as their political 
standing and character might probably be known. We 
have no doubt that they would prove to be altogether 
above even the suspicion of entertaining such heretical 
sentiments on government. 

Mr. Jefferson proceeds to say, that the effect of their 
manoBUvres, that is those who attended the Annapolis con- 
vention, with the defective attendance of deputies from 
the states, resulted in the measure of calling a more gen- 
eral convention to be held at Philadelphia. What ma- 
ncsuvring occurred on that occasion he does not explain. 
Nor is it easy to imagine what necessity there could have 
existed for the exercise of any, for their duties were of a 
plain and simple kind — the convention had failed, no part 
of the business for which it was appointed could be trans- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 109 

acted, because the object was national and required una- 
nimity, and but five of the thirteen states were represent- 
ed ; and nothing remained for them, except a measure 
about which they volunteered, which was to recommend 
to all the states to appoint delegates to another convention. 
This required neither artifice nor cunning — it was impos- 
sible to cheat the states on the subject of the proposition ; 
and none but a man who valued himself for skill and ad- 
dress in imposing upon the public mind, or a downright 
idiot, would have ever dreamed of attempting it. 

Mr. Jefferson, probably aware of the difEcully of mak- 
ing the world credit such an improbable account as this, 
adds at the close of it the remark that, " What passed 
through the whole period of these conventions, I have 
gone on the information of those who were members cf 
them^ being absent myself on my mission to France." 

This was undoubtedly the (^mmencement of the system 
of party " manceuvring^'' which he afterwards practiced 
with such extraordinary success in his political career, in 
claiming for himself and his followers the exclusive title 
of republicans, and stigmatizing the federalists as mon- 
archists ; for in the next sentence after that above quoted, 
he says — "At this," (that is the convention which met in 
Philadelphia in 1787, and formed the constitution) " the 
same party exhibited the same practices, and with the 
same views of preventing a government of concord, which 
they foresaw would be republican, and of forcing through 
anarchy their way to monarchy. But the mass of that 
convention was too honest, too wise and too steady to be 
baffled and misled by their manoeuvres." These charges, 
of course, like the former, must have depended on hearsay 
evidence. It is a little remarkable, that no direct proof of 
their correctness has ever been adduced, though fifty years 
10 



110 THE CHARACTER OF 

have now elapsed, and the whole generation of those who 
were members of that body are in their graves. These 
" Ana'' it will be recollected, were prepared for future use 
from " memorandums on loose scraps of paper, taken out 
of his pocket in the moment, and laid by to be copied fair 
at leisure, which, however, they hardly ever were." These 
scraps, he says, " ragged, rubbed, and scribbled as they 
were," he had bound with the others. At the end of 
twenty-five years or more from their dates, he had given 
the whole a calm revisal, when the passions of the time 
had passed away, and the reasons of the transactions acted 
alone on the judgment. Some of the informations he had 
recorded, he cut out from the rest, because he had seen 
they were incorrect, or doubtful, or merely personal, or 
private ; and he would perhaps have thought the rest not 
worth preserving, but for their testimony against the only 
history of that period, which pretended to have been com- 
piled from authentic documents. These " memorandums," 
then, were made and preserved for the purpose oi testifying 
against a history of the period, by which it is to be presum- 
ed he meant the life of George Washington, hy John Mar- 
shall. What degree of credit is due to evidence made up 
in this manner, and for such a purpose, will be left to the 
common sense and integrity of mankind to decide. One 
circumstance, however, should be borne in mind, that it is 
entirely unsupported by any witnesses or proof except 
the naked assertion of its author. The reputation of Mar- 
shall's work, then, may be safely trusted, on the unquestion- 
able evidence which it carries upon its face, of its own in- 
trinsic credit and merit and the unsullied and unimpeach- 
able integrity and veracity of its author. Happy would it 
be for Mr. Jefferson's memory if his " Ana " stood upon 
as firm a basis. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. Ill 

Mr. Jefferson brings the same charge against the con- 
vention at Philadelphia that he had before preferred 
against that at Annapolis. He says the same party which 
had made its appearance at Annapolis was found at Phila- 
delphia, where they exhibited the same practices and with 
the same views of preventing a government of concord, 
which they foresaw would be republican, and of /orciTz^ 
through anarchy their way to monarchy. In support of this 
declaration, he produces not a particle of evidence ; but 
undoubtedly relies either upon the hearsay accounts which 
he says he derived from those who were members of the 
convention, or, what is more probable, upon his own pro- 
lific imagination. Not a witness is named, nor is any 
source of proof referred to except that of hearsay just 
mentioned. He alludes, however, to a story that has been 
much circulated through the country, respecting a project 
which it was alleged general Hamilton suggested, of a 
system in some respects more energetic in it:- character 
than that which was finally adopted and incorporated into 
the constitution. There is no room for doubt, that Mr. Jef- 
ferson, upon his return from Europe and taking his seat in 
the national cabinet, found the reputation of general Ham- 
ilton for talents and patriotism so high that it became an 
object of great importance with him, in the prosecution of 
his plans of personal ambition, to lessen at least, if he was 
not able to destroy, the popularity and influence of that 
great man, and to render him an object of distrust and 
odium. Whilst Mr. Jefferson was in Europe, he was of 
course entirely out of the way of the difficulties and dis- 
tresses which the government and the country had experi- 
enced for several years previously to the adoption of the 
federal constitution. In the adoption of that constitution, 
no person had made greater exertions, or produced more 



112 THE CHARACTER OF 

important effects, than general Hamilton. Whatever 
views he might have entertained on any particular topics 
during the discussions in the convention which formed it, 
in its principles and provisions, as finally adjusted, he fully 
acquiesced, and his name stands among those who signed 
it ; and in procuring its adoption by the people, his extra- 
ordinary and almost unrivalled talents were zealously 
and successfully exerted. To impair an influence thus 
honorably acquired, and beneficially exercised, became an 
object of the highest importance to the success of Mr. Jef- 
ferson's views of personal ambition and aggrandizement. 
Accordingly, he began a system of political hostility 
against general Hamilton which he never relinquished 
until that object was accomplished. Indeed, such was the 
bitterness of his enmity towards that great statesman, to 
whom the country are under such incalculable obligations, 
that he carried it on with a somewhat concealed but impla- 
cable malignity, that age could not cool nor time abate, 
even when he had passed the age of three-score years and 
ten, and which finally accompanied him into the solitude 
and darkness of the grave. 

The great basis of this warfare against talents and pat- 
riotism was the general charge of a monarchical propensi- 
ty — a disposition to change the republican system of the 
United States into a monarchy. In order to render this 
charge sufficiently efficacious, it became necessary to in- 
volve in it the other influential friends and supporters of 
the constitution — that constitution to which Mr. Jefferson 
had manifested, on various grounds, a decided opposi- 
tion, but which general Hamilton and his federal friends, 
associates, and fellow-laborers, against that opposition, had 
by their united efforts and by: the exercise of their wis- 
dom, public spirit, and patriotic devotion to their country, 
formed, adoped and put into successful operation. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 113 



CHAPTER VII. 

Mr. Jefferson had no regard for the constitution if it stood in the 
way of his interests — Treaty-making power — Opposed to Mr. 
Jay's treaty with Great Britain — Attempts to prevent its ratifi- 
cation — Doctrine advanced by him regarding the power of the 
representatives over treaties — Letters to Monroe and Madison— 
Gallatin'si and Madison's opinions — Livingston's resolution in 
the House of Representatives — Arguments used on both sides 
in debate — Resolution adopted by House of Representatives — 
Mr. Jefferson's sentiments opposed to the constitution, of which 
he seemed to be sensible — His sentiments contradicted in the 
case of the treaty with France, in 1831 ; but urged against that 
treaty by members of the French legislature — Livingston at this 
time minister at Paris, and obliged to act in opposition to the 
sentiments avowed by him on Mr. Jay's treaty. 

The federalists had no confidence in Mr. Jeflferson's re- 
gard for the constitution if his interests or his policy were 
in danger of being injured, or his views and plans thwart- 
ed by a strict adherence to its provisions or its principles. 

By the second section of the second article of the con- 
stitution of the United States, it is declared that the presi- 
dent shall have power, by and with the advice and consent 
of the senate, to make treaties, provided two-thirds of the 
senators present concur. And in the sixth article it is 
provided that "This constitution, and the laws of the 
United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof; 
and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the 
authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law 
law of the land." This language is too plain, too precise, 
and too explicit to be mistaken. Every person who is al 
10* 



114 THE CHARACTER OF 

all acquainted with the English tongue knows that a su- 
preme law is paramount over all others ; and, of course, 
that such a law requires universal obedience from all de- 
scriptions of people. Neither the president of the United 
States, nor the senators or representatives in congress ; 
neither the governors or legislative bodies, nor the courts 
of the several states, are exempt from this great and in- 
dispensable obligation. The constitution itself, and the 
laws made in pursuance of its authority, according to the 
provision just quoted, are laws of this description. And 
treaties formed by the president and senate, in conformity 
with the same clause of the constitution, are also supreme 
laws, and require universal obedience and observation. 

It will appear in the course of this work, that Mr. Jef- 
ferson was most decidedly opposed to the treaty formed be- 
tween the United States and Great Britain in the year 1794, 
and which was commonly called Mr. Jay's treaty. That 
this treaty was highly advantageous to the United States 
was proved in a most conclusive manner by its effects. But 
it adjusted some of the difficulties between this country and 
Great Britain, and, of course, was viewed by the adherents 
of the French revolutionists as unfavorable to the projects 
and policy of that country ; and hence it was very ill re- 
ceived by them, and made the subject of much party heat 
and violence. In this light it was considered by Mr. 
Jefferson, who was extremely hostile to Great Britain and 
equally devoted to the interests of the French. This 
will account for the rancorous animosity which he felt 
towards the treaty, and, as was perfectly natural, towards 
those who ratified and carried it into execution. As it 
had been negotiated, ratified and established in strict con- 
formity with the provisions of the constitution, it could 
not be directly and legitimately destroyed or evaded. It 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 115 

therefore became necessary to devise some plan by which 
the end they had in view might be attained, and the evil 
which they appeared to dread might be avoided. Having 
failed in their attempts to overawe George Washington, 
and to induce him by the force of popular clamor to with- 
hold his signature from the treaty, the next attempt was 
to defeat it in the legislative department of the govern- 
ment, by refusing to enact the necessary measures for car- 
rying it into execution. Accordingly a bold and decided 
stand was made by Mr. Jefferson's partizans in the house 
of representatives of the United States, as soon as the 
treaty was laid before them, and a call was made upon 
them to adopt the measures necessary for that purpose. 
After a long, animated, and highly impassioned debate, in 
which the constitutional right of congress to withhold the 
legislative acts necessary to the execution of a treaty, after 
it had been ratifiedby the president and senate, was most 
vehemently urged and maintained ; in the end the acts 
were passed, the appropriations required by the stipula- 
tions in the treaty were made, and the treaty itself was 
confirmed and established. 

The doctrine thus assumed, and which came very near 
being adopted, and the precedent established by the house 
of representatives, was, probably, the invention of Mr. 
Jefferson ; or, if not, it received his cordial approbation. 
In the third volume of his works, (page 318,) is a letter to 
Wm. B. Giles, dated Dec. 31, 1795, in which he says, 
" I am well pleased with the manner in which your house 
have testified their sense of the treaty ; while their refusal 
to pass the original clause of the reported answer proved 
-their condemnation of it, the contrivance to let it disappear 
silently respected appearances in favor of the president, 
who errs as other men err, but errs with integrity. Ran- 



116 THE CHAHACTER OF 

dolph seems to have hit upon the true theory of our con- 
stitution ; that when a treaty is made, involving matters 
confided by the constitution to the three branches of the 
legislature conjointly, the representatives are as frek as the 
president and senate were to consider whether the national 
interest requires or forbids their giving the forms and 
force of law to the articles over which they have a power. ^^ 

In the same book, (page 323,) in a letter to colonel Mon- 
roe, dated March 21, 1796, he says, "The British treaty 
has been formally, at length, laid before congress. All 
America is a-tiptoe to see what the house of representa- 
tives will decide on it. We conceive the constitutional 
doctrine to be that, though the president and senate have ' 
the general power of making treaties, yet, wherever they 
include in a treaty matters confided by the constitution to 
the three branches of the legislature, an act of legislation 
will be requisite to confirm these articles, and that the 
house of representatives^ as one branch of the legislature, 
are perfectly free to pass the act or refuse it, governing 
themselves by their own judgment, whether it is for the 
good of their constituents to lei the treaty go into effect or 
not. On the precedent now to be set will depend the fu- 
ture construction of our constitution, and whether the 
powers of legislation shall be transferred from the presi- 
dent, senate and house of representatives, to the president 
and senate and Piamingo, or any other Indian Algerine 
or other chief. It is fortunate that the first decision is to 
be in a case so palpably atrocious as to have been pre- 
determined by all America." 

In a letter to James Madison, (page 324,) and dated 
March 27, 1796, he says, " I am much pleased with Mr. 
Gallatin's speech in Backe's paper of March the 14th. It 
is worthy of being printed at the end of the Federalist, as 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 117 

the only rational commentary on the part of the constitu- 
tion to which it relates. Not that there may not be ob- 
jections and difficult ones to it, and which I shall be glad 
to see his answers to ; hut if they are never answered they 
are more easily to he gulphed down than those which lie to 
the doctrines of his oppo7ients, which do, in fact, annihilate 
the whole of the powers given by the constitution to the 
legislature. According to the rule established by usage 
and common sense of construing one part of the instru- 
ment by another, the objects on which the president and 
senate may exclusively act by treaty are much reduced, 
but the field on which they may act with the sanction of 
the legislature is large enough ; and I see no harm in ren- 
dering their sanction necessary, and not much harm in 
annihilating the whole treaty-making power, except as to 
making peace. If you decide in favor of your right to re- 
fuse co-operation in any case of treaty, I should wonder 
on what occasion it is to be used if not in one where the 
rights, the interests, honor and faith of our nation are so 
grossly sacrificed ; where a faction has entered into a con- 
spiracy with the enemies of their country to chain down 
the legislature at the feet of both ; where the whole mass 
of your constituents have condemned this work in the 
most unequivocal manner, and are looking to you as their 
last hope to save them from the effects of the avarice and 
corruption of the first agent, the revolutionary machina- 
tions of others, and the incomprehensible acquiescence of 
the only honest man who has assented to it. I wish that 
his honesty and his political errors may not furnish a sec- 
ond occasion to exclaim, ' Curse on his virtues, they have 
undone his country.'' " 

He thus explicitly approves the doctrines advanced by 
Mr. Gallatin when discussing the subject. Mr. Gallatin 



118 THE CHARACTER OF 

said, " If the power of making treaties is to reside in the 
president and senate unlimitedly, in other words, if in the 
exercise of this power the president and senate are to be 
restrained by no other branch of the government, the pres- 
ident and senate may absorb all legislative power; the 
executive has nothing to do but to substitute a foreign na- 
tion to the house of representatives, and they may legis- 
late to any extent." — " He should not say that the treaty 
is unconstitutional ; but he would say, that it was not the 
supreme lavir of the land until it received the sanction of 
the legislature. That the constitution and laws made in 
pursuance thereof, and treaties made under the authority 
of the United States, are declared to be the supreme law 
of the land. The words are, ' under the authority of the 
United States,' not signed and ratified by the president ; 
so that a treaty clashing in any of its provisions with 
the express powers of congress, until it has so far obtained 
the sanction of congress, is not a treaty under the authori- 
ty of the United States."* 

" The views of Mr. Madison," says Mr. Pitkin, (page 
461,) " on this important question, were generally in ac- 
cordance with those expressed by Mr. Gallatin." — " He 
considered that construction the most consistent, most in 
accordance with the spirit of the constitution, and freest 
from difficulties, which left with the president and senate 
the power of making treaties, but required, at the same 
time, the legislative sanction and co-operation in those 
cases where the constitution had given express and speci- 
fied powers to the legislature." 

One of the persons who took an active part in the de- 
bates upon the treaty was Edward Livingston, a member 
of the house of representatives from the state of New 

* Pitkin's Pol. and Civ. Hist., vol. 2, page 460—63. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 119 

York. He contended with great earnestness, that it was 
incident to the power of legislation vested by the constitu- 
tion in the house, that upon every question coming before 
them for examination and decision, they must have the 
right of rejection as well as of adoption, otherwise they 
were mere machines, with no other powers in the specific 
case before them than to register the decrees of the pres- 
ident and senate. 

After the ratification of the treaty in the manner pre- 
scribed in the constitution, this gentleman offered a resolu- 
tion to the house, " requesting the president to lay before 
the house a copy of the instructions to the minister of the 
United States who negotiated the treaty with Great Bri- 
tain, together with the correspondence and other docu- 
ments relative to the said treaty." In discussing this re- 
solution, says judge Marshall, " By the friends of the ad- 
ministration it was maintained, that a treaty was a contract 
between two nations, which, under the constitution, the 
president, by and with the consent of the senate, had a 
right to make, and that was made when, by and with such 
advice and consent, it had received his final act. Its obli- 
gations then became complete on the United States, and to 
refuse to comply with its stipulations was to break the 
treaty and to violate the faith of the nation. 

" By the opposition it was contended, that the power to 
make treaties, if applicable to every object, conflicted with 
powers which were vested exclusively in congress. That 
either the treaty-making power must be limited in its oper- 
ation so as not to touch objects committed by the constitu- 
tion to congress, or the assent and co-operation of the 
house of representatives must be required to give validity 
to any compact so far as it might comprehend those ob- 
jects. A treaty, therefore, which required an appropriation 



120 THE CHARACTER OF 

of money or any act of congress to carry it into effect, had 
not acquired its obligatory force until the house of repre- 
sentatives had exercised its powers in the case. They 
were at full liberty to make or to withhold such appropria- 
tion, or other law, without incurring the imputation of 
violating any existing obligation, or of breaking the faith 
of the nation. "=^ 

During the same session, '* a resolution," says Mr. Pitkin, 
" was submitted, [to the house of representatives] declaring 
the constitutional power of that body in relation to treaties, 
and on the 17th of April was adopted, fifty-seven to thirty- 
five, and entered on the journals. After referring to the 
section of the constitution concerning treaties, it declared, 
' that the house of representatives do not claim any agency 
in making treaties ; but that when a treaty stipulates regu- 
lations on any of the subjects submitted by the constitu- 
tion to the power of congress, it must depend for its execu- 
tion^ as to such stipulations, on a law or laws to be passed 
by congress ; and it is the constitutional right and duty of 
the house of representatives, in all such cases, to deliber- 
ate on the expediency or inexpediency of carrying such 
treaty into effect, and to determine and act thereon as in 
their judgment may be most conducive to the public 
good.'"! 

That the doctrines which Mr. Jefferson labored so ear- 
nestly and so zealously to enforce and establish were in di- 
rect violation of the constitution will, at this time, scarcely 
be denied. That a treaty which had been formed and 
ratified according to the provision of the constitution, and 
of course had become a supreme law of the land, could 
still be prevented from going into operation by a refusal 

* Life of Washington, vol. 5, page 651. 
t Pol. and Civ. Hist., vol. 2, page 468. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 121 

on the part of the house of representatives to adopt the 
necessary measures for carrying it into effect, is not only 
absurd and mischievous but degrading to the national 
government. The treaty, having been ratified according 
to the plain provision of the constitution, had become a 
supreme law, v^^hich the house of representatives were 
bound by the most solemn obligations to obey ; and a re- 
fusal on their part to carry it into effect would have been 
a plain and willful breach of the oath they had taken when 
admitted to their seats. And yet, Mr. Jefferson, from an 
undue attachment to revolutionary France and a settled 
spirit of hostility to Great Britain, exerted himself in a 
secret manner, but with all his talents and address, to in- 
duce that branch of the national legislature to be guilty of 
this gross misconduct. 

Nor was he unconscious of the impropriety of his own 
conduct. By the language made use of in his letter to 
Mr. Madison, when speaking of his argument on this 
great question, he acknowledges that there may be objec- 
tions, and difficult ones, to it to which he should be glad to 
see his answers. But, he adds, if they are never answer- 
ed, they are the more easily to be gulphed down than those 
which lie to the doctrines of his opponents. In other words, 
he could swallow an unconstitutional argument that favor- 
ed a heterodox opinion of his own more easily than he 
could yield to a constitutional one that would overthrow 
his own unconstitutional hypothesis. 

The government of the United States, at a later period 
of its history, had an opportunity to examine the sound- 
ness of the principles advanced and vehemently maintained 
by Mr. Jefferson and his principal adherents on this sub- 
ject, in a case where one of the parties was charged, and 
where their own pecuniary interests were more imme- 
11 



122 THE CHARACTER OF 

diately involved. In the case alluded to, France instead 
of Great Britain was directly concerned. Reference is 
here made to the treaty between the government of the 
last mentioned nation and the United States, entered into 
in the year 1831. By this treaty, France had agreed to 
pay to the United States twenty-five millions of francs as 
an indemnity for spoliations upon the commerce of Amer- 
ican citizens during the reign of Napoleon Bonaparte. 
The treaty had been ratified by both the parties, according 
to the forms prescribed by their several constitutions. It 
has been seen, that the principle adopted by Mr. JefTerson 
and his friends in the house of representatives of the 
United States when Mr. Jay's treaty was before them 
was, that when a treaty had been ratified by the president 
and senate which contained articles that required legisla- 
tive aid to carry those articles into effect, the house of rep- 
resentatives, being a branch of the legislative power, had 
a right to exercise their judgment, and to pass or not pass 
the necessary acts for that purpose, according as the treaty 
was or was not likely, in their opinion, to be beneficial to 
their country. When the treaty with France was laid 
before the legislative body of that nation for the purpose 
of obtaining an act to appropriate the money necessary to 
pay the indemnity stipulated for in that document, the 
measure was vehemently opposed by a portion of the 
chamber of deputies on the specific ground advocated in 
the house of representatives of the United States in the 
case of the treaty with Great Britain, that the treaty was 
not beneficial hut injurious to France. 

The first person who spoke in opposition to the appro- 
priation bill was M. Boissy D' Anglais, and the following 
is the first sentence in his speech : — 

" If the treaty submitted to us offered any real advan- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 123 

tages for France, if it were established on principles of jus- 
tice and reciprocity, I should not oppose the bill now be- 
fore you ; but as I find in it none of those characters, I 
think we should not agree to the payment of an enormous 
sum which the unfortunate situation of our finances does 
not allow us to part with gratuitously." On this ground 
he argued the question throughout his speech. 

M. Bignon made a long and very ingenious speech, in 
which he took the same general ground and made it the 
principal basis of his objections. In the course of it he 
said : — 

" The government of the TJiiited States knows, better 
than any other, that in a representative government, no 
political convention containing a stipulation for any pay- 
ment whatever can be considered definitive until the con- 
sent of the body which has the right of voting the appro- 
priation has been obtained in that particular stipulation." 

Other members adopted the same course of reasoning 
in the progress of the debate, but enough has been quoted 
for the purpose of establishing the fact mentioned, viz: 
that the ground on which the French treaty was opposed 
in the chamber of deputies was precisely the same with 
that advocated by Mr. Jeflferson and his friends against 
the British treaty. 

At the time when this difficulty occurred at Paris rela- 
tive to the execution of the treaty of 1831, the minister 
from the United States to the French government was 
Mr. Edward Livingston, whose name has been already 
mentioned as a member of the house of representatives of 
the United States in 1790, and an active opponent of the 
measures necessary for the execution of the treaty with 
Great Britain. As a diplomatic agent he found himself 
under the necessity of taking different ground from that 



124 THE CHARACTER OF 

which he had occupied nearly forty years before in the 
legislative assembly of his own country, and assert princi- 
ples and adopt a course of reasoning not only diametrically 
opposite to those which he had advocated as sound and 
legitimate in his earlier years, but precisely similar to 
those used by the federalists on Mr. Jay's treaty. 

Finding such doubts and delays in the French chamber 
of deputies in regard to the execution of the treaty, the 
executive branch of the United States government took 
fire ; and for a considerable time, it was a very serious 
question whether we should not be involved in a war with 
that nation on that simple ground. But the history of the 
case ought to be received by the people of this republic as an 
important admonitory lesson, to be more upon their guard 
against the arts and designs of ambitious politicians, who 
are more anxious to promote their own personal and party 
interests than to consult the general welfare or preserve a 
reputation for consistency either in their principles or con- 
duct. Mr. Jefferson's system, if such it may be called, 
was one of expedients. He always adopted the project 
that promised to be useful at the moment in extricating 
him from an unexpected embarrassment, or in the accom- 
plishment of a favorite object, trusting to future events for 
what might occur. By placing too much confidence in 
his skill to get through difficulties, or too great a subser- 
viency to his management or dictation in the case under 
consideration, they suffered him, in his eagerness to carry 
a favorite measure, to establish an important precedent 
which not only placed the government in a mortifying sit- 
uation, but came very near involving the country in a 
calamitous and vindictive war. And this was owing to 
his total disregard of one of the plainest provisions of the 
constitution* 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 125 



CHAPTER VIII. 

BIr. Jefferson a secret enemy of general Washington — Ambitious of 
being considered as the greatest political character of his country 
— Willing to concede to Washington pre-eminence as a military 
officer, but not as a statesman — Formed a French party soon 
after his return from France — Accused the federalists of British 
partialities — Aristocratic and monarchical propensities — Procla- 
mation of neutrality — Strongly opposed by the French party — 
Extracts from newspapers concerning it — Attacks upon the 
executive as the enemy of France — Philip Freneau and the 
National Gazette — Conversation between general Washington 
and Mr. Jefferson respecting that paper — His enmity to Wash- 
ington more manifest after the Whiskey insurrection broke out 
— President's speech to congress, November, 1794 — Allusion to 
democratic societies as the sources of it — Mr, Jefferson's opin- 
ion of insurrections, November, 1787 — Sentiments respecting 
the Whiskey insurrection — Democratic societies and the Cincin- 
nati — Judge Marshall's account of the insurrection, and its sup- 
pression — Letter to Mazzoi — to James Madison — Effects of 
general Washington's popularity — John Jay's corruption — Let- 
ter to Aaron Burr respecting Washington ! 

The federalists believed that Mr. Jefferson, although a 
professed friend of general Washington, was in reality his 
secret and malignant enemy. General Washington was 
probably deluded by the frequency and the warmth of Mr. 
Jefferson's declarations on that subject, and for a consider- 
able time believed that he was what he professed himself 
to be, his sincere fi;iend and warm admirer. If his pro- 
testations were insincere and hypocritical — and about this 
there seems to be but little room for doubt — it is difficult 
to assign a satisfactory cause for it, except those feelings 
11# 



126 THE CHARACTER OF 

of selfishness by which very few persons were ever more 
uniformly influenced than himself. Mr. Jefferson's ambi- 
tion was, unquestionably, to be considered and acknowl- 
edged as the greatest political and civil character of his 
country ; and whoever stood in the way of his ambition 
was of course the object of his jealousy and animosity. 
Feelings of this kind undoubtedly were the foundation of 
his unrelenting enmity to general Hamilton, and led 
him into the long train of calumnies which have been al- 
luded to. General Washington's military services and 
character, brilliant as they were, gave Mr. Jefferson no 
uneasiness. He had no disposition " to seek the bubble 
reputation at the cannon's mouth." That species of fame 
could not be attained but through hazards which he had 
no desire to encounter ; and he was therefore willing gen- 
eral Washington should enjoy all the fame as a soldier 
that he had acquired. But to act the part of a statesman, 
to perform the duties of civil chief of the government, in 
his opinion, doubtless, required greater acquirements and 
different talents from those which the latter possessed. 
Hence it will appear, that notwithstanding many marked 
expressions of esteem and respect are scattered along in his 
correspondence, there is at the same time clearly discov- 
erable, in various instances, a spirit of hostility which it 
is difficult to account for except upon the ground which 
has just been suggested. 

It has been shown, that Mr. Jefferson returned from 
France in December, 17S9, filled with enthusiasm in favor 
of the revolutionary movements in that kingdom. His 
partizans imbibed a similar spirit from him, and in a short 
time a strong French party was formed in this country. In 
order to conceal their real objects, under his tutelage they 
soon began to accuse those who did not adopt his senti- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 127 

ments and feelings and enroll themselves under his banner, 
of British partialities, and of course, of being aristocrats and 
monarchists. And so highly were the passions of the coun- 
try roused, that there was great danger that the government 
would be forced into a war with one country or the other by 
the mere effect of party passion and collision. Foreseeing 
the evils which such a state of things must necessarily 
produce, and the calamities which a war would inevitably 
bring upon the country, general Washington, with that de- 
gree of firmness and independence which ever marked his 
conduct, published his proclamation of neutrality, which 
kept the country firm and steady, and checked the pro- 
gress of things towards a rupture with either nation. The 
following account of this measure is from Marshall's Life 
of Washington. 

" A proclamation of neutrality being deemed a measure 
which was rendered advisable by the situation of the 
United States, the attorney general was directed to pre- 
pare one in conformity with the principles which had been 
adopted. On the 22d of April, this instrument was laid 
before the cabinet, and being approved, was signed by the 
president and ordered to be published. 

" This measure derives importance from the considera- 
tion, that it was the commencement of that system to 
which the American government afterwards inflexibly ad- 
hered, and to which much of the national prosperity is to 
be ascribed. It is not less important in another view. 
Being at variance with the prejudices, the feelings and the 
passions of a large portion of the society, and being pre- 
dicated on no previous proceedings of the legislature, it 
presented the first occasion which was thought a fit one 
for openly assaulting a character around which the affec- 
tions of the people had thrown an armor heretofore deem- 



128 THE CHARACTER OF 

ed sacred, and for directly criminating the conduct of the 
president himself. It was only by opposing passions to 
passions, by bringing the feeling in favor of France into 
conflict with those in favor with the chief magistrate, that 
the enemies of the administration could hope to obtain the 
victory. 

" For a short time, the opponents of this measure treat- 
ed it with some degree of delicacy. The opposition prints 
occasionally glanced at the executive ; considered all gov- 
ernments, including that of the United States, as naturally 
hostile to the liberties of the people ; and ascribed to this 
disposition the combination of European governments 
against France, and the unconcern with which this combi- 
nation was contemplated by the executive. At the same 
time, the most vehement declamations were published for 
the purpose of inflaming the public resentments against 
Britain ; of enhancing the obligations of America to 
France ; of confirmxing the opinion that the coalition of 
European monarchs was directed, not less against the 
United States than against that power to which its hos- 
tility was avowed ; and that those who did not embrace 
this opinion were the friends of that coalition and equally 
the enemies of America and France. 

" These publications, in the first instance sufficiently 
bitter, quickly assumed a highly increased degree of acri- 
mony." (Vol. 5, page 408.) 

In reference to this same subject, Mr. Pitkin, in his 
Political and Civil History of the United States, says : — 

" The prejudices of the people against Great Britain, 
arising from recent as well as ancient causes of controver- 
sy, and their partialities in favor of France, were made 
subservient to the views of the leaders of the opposition, 
and brought to bear against the administration of the gen- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 129 

eral government. And though few would openly declare 
that the United States ought to make common cause with 
the new republic, yet many openly took part with the 
French minister against their own government, and advo- 
cated measures which, if adopted, would necessarily bring 
them in collision with the enemies of France. While the 
president was using all the means in his power to preserve 
his country from the calamities of war, he was accused of 
particular friendship for Great Britain and of hostility to 
France, of favoring one at the expense of the other ; nay, 
was charged with an intention of joining the coalition 
against France. 

" The following extracts from two of the leading and most 
influential opposition newspapers of the day will serve, 
among others of a similar character, to show the spirit 
which prevailed against the father of his country. 

" As early as July, 1793, the National Gazette, printed 
at the seat of government, and edited by one of the clerks 
in the department of state, had the following paragraph — ■ 
' The minister of France, I hope, will act with firmness and 
with spirit. The people are his friends or the friends of 
France, and he will have nothing to apprehend ; for, as 
yet, the people are sovereign of the United States. Too 
much complacency is an injury done his cause, for as 
every advantage is already taken of France, (not by the 
people) further condescension may lead to further abuse. 
If one of the leading features of our government is pusil- 
lanimity, when the British lion shows his teeth, let France 
and her minister act as becomes the dignity and justice of 
their cause, and the honor and faith of nations.' 

" It is no longer possible to doubt, said the General Ad- 
vertiser, also published at Philadelphia, that the intention 
of the executive of the United States is, to look upon the 



130 THE CHARACTER OF 

treaty of amity and commerce which exists between France 
and America, as a nullity ; and that they are prepared to 
join the league of kings against France." (Vol. 2, page 
386-7.) 

This state of things occurred during the time of Genet's 
residence here as the minister of France. His conduct, it 
is well known, was marked with such a degree of violence, 
illegality and insolence, that it became impossible, consist- 
ently with any regard to national dignity, for the adminis- 
tration to hold any official intercourse or correspondence 
with him ; and he was at length at their request recalled 
by his own government. Whilst here, and recognized as 
the representative of the French government, among other 
things, he undertook the task of establishing " democratic 
societies " in several of the large towns and cities, in imi- 
tation of the jacobin clubs of his own country, in the ex- 
pectation that these institutions would be able to exert 
the same influence in the United States that their pro- 
genitors had exercised in France — that is, to overawe 
and control the government. This was to be brought 
about by inflaming the popular passions, and enkindling 
popular resentment against their own government. Such 
was the source of Jacobinical influence and dominion ; and 
as it had succeeded in that nation, it was taken for granted 
that it would prove equally successful here. That they 
were favored by Mr. Jefferson is perfectly clear from his 
own works ; and was no secret at the time of their forma- 
tion and operations. The passage quoted above from the 
National Gazette, taken in connection with other facts, is 
sufficient evidence of the truth of this remark. The editor 
of that paper was Philip Freneau, a clerk in the office of 
the secretary of state, whilst Mr. Jefferson occupied that 
important station. Under the direction of this man, who 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 131 

received a salary from the public treasury, that paper was 
one of the most violent and virulent among the democratic 
journals in its attacks not only upon federalists and the 
government, but upon general Washington himself. This 
Mr. Jefferson was perfectly aware of, for it was done un- 
der his own eye, and by one who was employed by him 
in the public service. In the 4th volume of his works, 
page 485, is the following passage : — 

" May the 23d. I had sent to the president, yesterday, 
draughts of a letter from him to the provisory executive 
council of France, and of one from myself to Mr. Ternant, 
both on the occasion of his recall. I called on him to-day. 
He said there was an expression in one of them which he 
had never before seen in any of our public communica- 
tions, to wit, ^^ 02cr republic.^^ The lette* prepared for him 
to the council, begun thus : ' The citizen Ternant has deliv- 
ered to me the letter wherein you inform me, that yielding, 
&c., you had determined to recall him from his mission 
as your minister plenipotentiary to ou7' republic.' He had 
underscored the words our republic. He said that certain- 
ly ours was a republican government, but j^et we had not 
used that style in this way ; that if anybody wanted to 
change its form into a monarchy, he was sure it Avas only 
a few individiials, and that no man in the United States 
would set his face against it more than himself: but that 
this was not what he was afraid of; his fears were from 
another quarter ; that there was more danger of anarchy 
being introduced. He adverted to a piece in Freneau's 
paper of yesterday ; he said he despised all their attacks on 
him personally, but that there never had been an act of the 
government, not meaning in the executive line only, but 
in any line, which that paper had not abused. He was 
evidently sore and warm, and I took his intention to be, 



132 THE CHARACTER OP 

that I should interpose in some way with Freneau, perhaps 
withdraw his appointment of translating clerk to my office. 
But I will not do it. His paper has saved our constitu- 
tion, which was galloping fast into monarchy, and has 
been checked by no one means so powerfully as by that 
paper. It is well and universally known, that it has been 
that paper which has checked the career of the monocrats ; 
and the president, not sensible of the designs of the party, 
has not, with his usual good sense and sang froid, looked 
on the efforts and effects of this free press and seen that 
though some bad things have passed through it to the pub- 
lic, yet the good has preponderated immensely." 

This was the man who was constantly avowing the 
highest esteem, respect and even friendship for general 
Washington, who was little short of sycophantic in his 
professions of regard, but who was fostering at the public 
expense a worthless, unprincipled tool of his own, and fur- 
nishing him, by favor of his own patronage, with the 
means and opportunity of vilifying the man whom he pre- 
tended so much to admire as his own friend and the great 
benefactor of his country. Nay, even upon discovering 
that general Washington " was evidently chafed " at being 
the object of such unmerited abuse, and that he was de- 
sirous of Mr. Jefferson's interference to put an end to such 
calumnies, and "-perhaps'' that he should dismiss Freneau 
from his service, he says, with a manifest air of gratification, 
" I will not do it. His paper has saved our constitution, 
which was galloping fast into monarchy." Is not this de- 
cisive proof that Mr. Jefferson was the secret but deter- 
mined enemy of Washington ? 

This spirit of hostility towards general Washington 
shows itself in Mr. Jefferson's correspondence more dis- 
tinctly after the breaking out and suppression of what 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 133 

has been called the " whisky insurrection," in Pennsyl- 
vania. After that disturbance had been quelled by a mil- 
itary force, congress came together, viz., in November, 1794. 
General Washington in his speech at the opening of the 
session, after adverting to the insurrection, and in the lan- 
guage of judge Marshall, — 

" After bestowing a high encomium on the alacrity and 
promptitude with which persons in every station had come 
forward to assert the dignity of the laws, thereby furnish- 
ing an additional proof that they understood the true prin- 
ciples of government and liberty, and felt their inseparable 
union, he added, — 

" ' To every description indeed of citizens, let praise be 
given. But let them persevere in their affectionate vigil- 
ance over that precious depository of American happiness 
— the constitution of the United States. And when in 
the calm moments of reflection they shall have retraced 
the origin and progress of the insurrection, let them deter- 
mine whether it has not been fomented by combinations of 
men who, careless of consequences, and disregarding the 
unerring truth that those who rouse cannot always appease 
a civil convulsion, have disseminated, from an ignorance 
or perversion of facts, suspicions, jealousies and accusa- 
tions of the whole government.' " ^ 

This attack on democratic societies as having had an 
agency in producing the insurrection, was not to be par- 
doned by Mr. Jefferson. Insurrections were an impor- 
tant part of his political system. In a letter to colonel 
Smith, dated at Paris, November 13, 1787, (vol. 2, page 
267 of his works,) he says, " The British ministry have 
so long hired their gazetteers to repeat and model into 
every form lies about our being in anarchy, that the world 

* Life of Washington, vol. 5. p. 596—7. 
12 



134 THE CHARACTER OF 

has at length believed them, the ministers themselves have 
come to believe them, and what is more wonderful we 
have believed them ourselves. Yet where does this anar- 
chy exist? Where did it ever exist, except in the. single 
instance of Massachusetts ? And can history produce an 
instance of rebellion so honorably conducted ? I say noth- 
ing of its motives. They were founded in ignorance, not 
wickedness. -God forbid we should ever be twenty years 
without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all and 
always well informed. The part which is wrong will be 
discontented in proportion to the importance of the facts 
they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such mis- 
conceptions it is a lethargy, the foj-erunner of death to the 
public liberty. We have had thirteen states independent 
for eleven years. There has been one rebellion. That 
comes to one rebellion in a century and a half for each 
state. What country before ever existed a century and a 
half without a rebellion ? And what country can preserve 
its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time 
that this people preserve the spirit of resistance. Let 
them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to 
facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives 
lost in a century or two ? The tree of liberty must be re- 
freshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and 
tyrants ; it is its natural manure." 

It was not to be expected that the man who could talk 
in this flippant and cold-hearted manner about Shays's in- 
surrection, or of rebellion in the abstract, would manifest 
any uneasiness or regret at the whisky disturbance ; and 
when he found that general Washington made it the 
ground of serious charge against his favorite machinery, 
it was very natural for him to complain and manifest 
symptoms of resentment. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 135 

" The denunciation of the democratic societies," says 
he, "is one of the extraordinary acts of boldness of which 
we have seen so many from the faction of monocrats. It 
is wonderful, indeed, that the president should have per- 
mitted himself to be the organ of such an attack on the 
freedom of discussion, the freedom of writing, printing 
and publishing. It must be a matter of rare curiosity to 
get at the modifications of these rights proposed by them, 
and to see what line their ingenuity would draw between 
democratical societies, whose avowed object is the nour- 
ishment of the republican principles of our constitution, 
and the society of the Cincinnati, or self-created one, carv- 
ing out for itself hereditary distinctions, lowering over our 
constitution eternally, meeting together in all parts of the 
Union periodically with closed doors, accumulating a cap- 
ital in their separate treasury, corresponding secretly and 
regularly, and of which society the very persons denoun- 
cing the democrats are themselves the father?, founders 
and high officers. Their sight must be perfectly dazzled 
by the glittering of crowns and coronets not to see the ex- 
travagance of the proposition to suppress the friends of 
general freedom, while those who wish to confine that 
freedom to the few are permitted to go on in their princi- 
ples and practices. I here put out of sight the persons 
whose misbehavior has been taken advantage of to slander 
the friends of popular rights ; and I am happy to observe 
that, as far as the circle of my observation and information 
extends, every body has lost sight of them, and views the 
abstract attempt on their natural and constitutional rights 
in all its nakedness. I have never heard, or heard of, a 
single expression or opinion which did not condemn it as 
an inexcusable aggression. And with respect to the trans- 
actions against the excise law it appears to me that you 



136 THE CHARACTER OF 

are all swept away in the torrent of governmental opin- 
ions, or that we do not know what these transactions have 
been. We know of none which, according to the defini- 
tions of the law, have been anything more than riotous. 
There was, indeed, a meeting to consult about a separa- 
tion. But to consult on a question does not amount to a 
determination of that question in the affirmative, still less 
to the acting on such a determination ; but we shall see, 
I suppose, what the court lawyers and courtly judges and 
would-be ambassadors will make of it. The excise law is 
an infernal one. The first error was to admit it by the 
constitution ; the second, to act on that admission ; the 
third, and last, will be, to make it the instrument of dis- 
membering the Union, and setting us all afloat to choose 
what part of it we will adhere to. The information of 
our militia returned from the westward is uniform that, 
though the people there let them pass quietly, they were 
objects of their laughter not of their fear ; that one thou- 
sand men could have cut off their whole force in a thou- 
sand places in the Allegany ; that their detestation of the 
excise law is universal, and has now associated to it a 
detestation of the government ; and that separation which, 
perhaps, was a very distant and problematical event, is 
now near and certain and determined in the mind of 
every man. I expected to have seen some justification of 
arming one part of the society against another ; of de- 
claring a civil war the moment before the meeting of that 
body which has the sole right of declaring war ; of being 
so patient of the kicks and scoffs of our enemies and 
rising at a feather against our friends ; of adding a million 
to the public debt and deriding us with recommendations 
to pay it if we can, &c., &c. But. the part of the speech 
which was to be taken as a justification of the armament, 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 137 

reminded me of Parson Saunders's demonstration why 
minus into minus makes plus. After a parcel of shreds of 
stuff from ^sop's Fables and Tom Thumb he jumps all 
at once into his ergo^ minus multiplied into minus makes 
plus. Just so the fifteen thousand men enter after the fa- 
bles into the speech." ^ 

It will be recollected that this whole passage is intended 
to be a direct and severe attack upon general Washington ; 
and this founded altogether upon the measures adopted un- 
der his direction, to suppress the insurrection, and to ridi- 
cule the remarks contained in his speech respecting the de- 
mocratic societies. Mr. Jefferson calls those remarks an at- 
tack on the freedom of discussion, writing, printing and 
publishing. It is a difficult thing to ascertain how a de- 
nunciation, as he calls the speech, of those associations 
had anything to do with the freedom of discussion, or writ- 
ing, or printing, or publishing. But, as it was the prac? 
tice among his followers, to take everything that he said 
for truth, and without the trouble of examination, he doubt- 
less presumed this declaration would be treated in the 
same manner, and therefore thought it expedient to make 
the general charge against the president. He alleges, too, 
that the avowed object of those societies was, " to nourish 
the republican principle of oiir constitution ; " and to show 
the difference between them and the society of the Cin- 
cinnati, he accuses the latter of " carving out for itself he" 
reditary distinctions, lowering over the constitution eter- 
nally," &c., of which society he says, " the very persons 
denouncing the democrats are themselves the fathers, 
founders, and high officers." General Washington was 
the president of the general society of the Cincinnati — it 
had been in existence more than ten years when this let- 

* Jefferson's Works, vol. 3, page 307. 
12# 



138 THE CHARACTER OP 

ter was written. It has existed now more than fifty years. 
Whatever was the avowed or real object of the democratic 
societies, established under the supervision and auspices of 
one of the most impudent, factious, insolent, and mischievous 
diplomatists that ever visited or disturbed the peace of any 
government or country. Mr. Jefferson never saw the day, 
and he lived to a very advanced age, when he could point 
to a single act or measure of the Cincinnati which in the 
slightest degree infringed upon the rights, liberties, or 
privileges of the people of the United States. The charge, 
coming from such a source, and on such an occasion, 
shows how little regard its author had to truth or justice, 
when urged on to any course of conduct by apprehensions 
of danger to his own interest or popularity. He professed 
to respect and esteem general Washington, and was very 
lavish of his expressions of regard whenever occasion 
called for them. But the moment that upright, independ- 
ent and virtuous magistrate, in the performance of his 
official duties, found himself under the necessity of putting 
a check to the progress of a mischievous faction, led by 
an unprincipled foreigner, in the garb of a minister pleni- 
potentiary, that moment he was denounced as an enemy 
to republicanism, and to the common rights and liberties 
of the inhabitants of the country. The truth was, a for- 
midable insurrection against the laws of the United States 
had broken out in Pennsylvania, of which judge Marshall 
gives the following account. After stating what had pre- 
viously occurred, he says : — 

" Charging himself with the service of these processes, 
the marshal repaired in person to the country which was 
the scene of these disorders. On the 15th of July, while 
employed in the execution of his duty, he was beset on the 
road by a body of armed men, who fired on him, but for- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 139 

tunately did him no personal injury. At day-break, the 
ensuing morning, a party attacked the house of general 
Nevil, the inspector ; but he defended himself resolutely, 
and obliged the assailants to retreat. 

" Knowing well that this attack had been pre-concerted, 
and consequently apprehending that it would be repeated, 
he applied to the militia officers and magistrates of the 
county for protection. The answer was, that * owing to the 
too general combination of the people to oppose the reve- 
nue system, the laws could not be executed so as to afford 
him protection : that should the posse comitatus be order- 
ed out to support the civil authority, few could be gotten 
that were not of the party of the rioters.' 

" On the succeeding day, the insurgents reassembled to 
the number of about five hundred to renew their attack 
on the house of the inspector. On finding that no protec- 
tion could be afforded by the civil authority, he had appli- 
ed to the commanding officer at Fort Pitt, and had obtain- 
ed a detachment of eleven men from the garrison, who 
were joined by major Kirkpatrick. Successful resistance 
to so great a force being obviously impracticable, a parley 
took place, at which the assailants, after requiring that the 
inspector and all his papers should be delivered up, de- 
manded that the party in the house should march out and 
ground their arms. This being refused, the parley ter- 
minated, and the assault commenced. The action lasted 
until the assailants set fire to several adjacent buildings, 
the heat from which was so intense that the house could 
no longer be occupied. From this cause, and from the 
apprehension that the fire would soon be communicated to 
the main building, major Kirkpatrick and his party surren- 
dered themselves. 

" The marshal and colonel Pressly Nevil were seized 



140 THE CHARACTER OF 

on their way to general Nevil's house, and detained until 
two the next morning. The marshal, especially, was 
treated with extreme rudeness. His life was frequent- 
ly threatened, and was probably saved by the inter- 
position of some leading characters who possessed more 
humanity or more prudence than those with whom they 
were associated. He could only obtain his safety or liber- 
ty by entering into a solemn engagement, which was 
guaranteed by colonel Nevil, to serve no more process on 
the western side of the Allegany mountains. 

" The marshal and inspector having both retired to 
Pittsburg, the insurgents deputed two of their body, one of 
whom was a justice of the peace, to demand that the for- 
mer should surrender all his process, and that the latter 
should resign his office ; threatening in case of refusal, to 
attack the place, and seize their persons. These demands 
were not acceded to ; but Pittsburg affording no security, 
these officers escaped from the danger which threatened 
them by descending the Ohio ; after which theyf ound 
their way by a circuitous route to the seat of government. 

" The perpetrators of these treasonable practices would, 
of course, be desirous to ascertain their strength, and to 
discover any latent enemies who might remain unsuspect- 
ed in the bosom of the disaffected country. To obtain 
this information, the mail from Pittsburg to Philadelphia 
was stopped by armed men, who cut it open, and took out 
the letters which it contained. In some of these letters, a 
direct disapprobation of the violent measures which had 
been adopted was openly avowed ; and in others, expres- 
sions were used which indicated unfriendly dispositions 
towards them. Upon acquiring this intelligence, delegates 
were deputed from the town of Washington to Pittsburg, 
where the writers of the offensive letters resided, to de- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 141 

mand the banishment of the offenders. A prompt obedi- 
ence to this demand was unavoidable ; and the inhabitants 
of Pittsburg, who were convened on the occasion, engaged 
to attend a general meeting of the people, who were to as- 
semble the next day in Braddock's field, in order to carry 
into effect such further measures as might be deemed ad- 
visable with respect to the excise and its advocates. They 
also determined to elect delegates to a convention which 
was to meet on the 14th of August at Parkinson's ferry. 
The avowed motives to these outrages were to compel the 
resignation of all officers engaged in the collection of the 
duties on distilled spirits ; to withstand by force of arms 
the authority of the United States, and thereby to extort a 
repeal of the law imposing those duties, and an alteration 
in the conduct of the government. 

" Affidavits attesting this serious state of things were 
laid before the executive.'"^ 

Although the government had endeavored for more than 
three years to conciliate this spirit, but without success, 
and it had become absolutely necessary to suppress it or 
to let the power of the nation fall before it, presenting an 
alternative respecting which George Washington could not 
for a moment hesitate ; yet, before proceeding to extremi- 
ties, he moved towards his ultimate object with the utmost 
caution, taking every step required by law, and finally is- 
suing a proclamation, in which, after recapitulating the 
measures which the government had adopted, he informed 
the insurgents that in his judgment it " was necessary to 
take measures for calling forth the militia in order to sup- 
press the combinations aforesaid, and to cause the laws to 
be duly executed, and he had accordingly determined so 
to do; feeling the deepest regret for the occasion, but with- 

* Life of "Washington, vol. 5, page 583. 



142 THE CHARACTER OF 

al the most solemn conviction that the essential interests 
of the Union demanded it; that the very existence of gov- 
ernment, and the fundamental principles of social order 
were involved in the issue; and that the patriotism and 
firmness of all good citizens were seriously called upon to 
aid in the suppression of so fatal a spirit.'"^ 

After noticing the measures taken to order out a body 
of militia, judge Marshall says : — 

" Meanwhile the insurgents omitted nothing which 
might enlarge the circle of disaffection. Attempts were 
made to embark the adjacent counties of Virginia in their 
cause, and their violence was extended to Morgantown, 
at which place an inspector resided, who saved himself 
by flight, and protected his property by advertising on 
his own door that he had resigned his office. They also 
made similar excursions into the contiguous counties of 
Pennsylvania lying east of the Allegany mountains where 
numbers were ready to join them. These deluded men, 
giving too much faith to the publications of democratic 
societies, and to the furious sentiments of general hostility 
to the administration, and particularly to the internal taxes, 
with which the papers in the opposition abounded, seem 
to have entertained the opinion, that the great body of the 
people were ready to take up arms against their govern- 
ment, and that the resistance commenced by them would 
spread throughout the Union, and might terminate in a 
revolution."! 

This is a concise history of the proceedings for the sup- 
pression of this formidable insurrection, — a disturbance 
which Mr. Jefferson, in the quotation from a letter ad- 
dressed to James Madison, speaks of as an affair which, 

* Life of Washington, vol. 5, page 585. 
f Life of Washington, vol. 5, page 586. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 143 

according to the definitions of law, was nothing more than 
riotous. He acknowledges, indeed, that there was a meet- 
ing to consult about a separation of the Union ; but he 
says, " to consult on a question, does not amount to a de- 
termination of that question in the affirmation, still less to 
the acting on such a determination." But, he says " we 
shall see what court lawyers, and courtly judges, and 
would-be ambassadors will make of it." And then he 
adds, as a decisive proof of his feelings towards the case, 
and especially towards the government, which had taken , 
measures to suppress it, " The excise laio is an infernal 
oney 

The course pursued and the measures resorted to by 
general Washington for putting down this insurrection, 
which, as has been seen, threatened the very existence of 
the Union and the government, indicated not only great 
firmness in the performance of his official duty, but a high 
degree of attachment to the constitution and country, as 
well as a manifestation of public spirit and patriotism — 
but it is very apparent, that when he stood in the way of 
Mr. Jefierson's notions of freedom, and showed a disposi- 
tion to still the turbulent waves of his *' tempestuous sea 
of liberty," his professions of friendship and admiration 
vanished into air ; and he was so much disturbed at see- 
ing the influence of the jacobin clubs of this country de- 
stroyed that he expected, in a case in which the president 
merited and received from all the real friends of the con- 
stitution and government the warmest testimonials of ap- 
probation, "some justification for arming one part of socie- 
ty against another ; of declaring civil war the moment be- 
fore the meeting of that body which has the sole right of 
declaring war ; of being so patient of the kicks and scoffs 
of our enemies, and rising at a feather against our friends.'* 



144 THE CHARACTER OF 

Having, as has been shown, entered upon the task of 
calumniating general Washington, Mr. Jefferson after- 
wards became more direct in his attacks upon his reputa- 
tion. In his famous letter to Mazzoi, he charges him ex- 
plicitly with belonging to an Anglo-monarchic-aristocratic 
party. " We have," says he, " against us {republicans) 
the executive power. ^^ General Washington constituting 
at that time the executive branch of the government, there 
is no room for Mr. Jefferson to escape from the charge of 
slandering that great man. Even in the version of this 
letter, as published in his works since his death, and which 
was manifestly prepared for the inspection of the public 
and of future generations, he does not attempt to explain 
away this expression. He says " against us republicans 
are the executive, the judiciary," &c. In both, the accusa- 
tion, in plain terms, is, that general Washington had become 
an English monarchist and aristocrat in his feelings and 
sentiments, and of course was opposed to Mr. Jefferson 
and his friends, who were republicans. No man who was 
as well acquainted with general Washington's history as 
Mr. Jefferson was, and possessed common honesty, could 
have charged him with monarchical principles, or anti-re- 
publican propensities. And yet here such a charge is direct- 
ly made by a man thoroughly informed of his character 
and conduct — one who professed himself to be his sincere 
friend and ardent admirer. A specimen of the warmth of 
his manner of making professions to him, before the date 
of the Mazzoi letter, may be found in the third volume of 
his works, page 306, in a letter to the secretary of state, 
dated September 7, 1794 — about a year and a half before 
the date of the Mazzoi letter, and a little more than three 
months before the date of the letter on the denunciation of 
democratic societies, and the whisky insurrection — " It is 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 145 

a great pleasure to me," says he, " to retain the esteem and 
approbation of the president, and this forms the only- 
ground of any reluctance at being unable to comply with 
every wish of his. Pray convey these sentiments and a 
thousand more to him which my situation does not permit 
me to go into." 

In a letter to James Madison, however, dated March 
Si7, 1796, just before the date of the Mazzei letter, when 
urging that gentleman to the adoption of certain principles 
in relation to the treaty-making power in the constitution, 
and in allusion to Mr. Jay's treaty, as it is commonly call- 
ed, he says, — " If you decide in favor of your right to re- 
fuse co-operation in any case of treaty, I should wonder on 
what occasion it is to be used if not in one where the 
rights, the interest, the honor and faith of our nation are 
so grossly sacrificed ; where a faction has entered into a 
conspiracy with the enemies of their country to chain down 
the legislature at the feet of both ; where the whole mass 
of your constituents have condemned this work in the most 
unequivocal manner, and are looking to you as their last 
hope to save them from the efl^ects of the avarice and cor- 
ruption of the first agent, the revolutionary machinations 
of others, and the incomprehensible acquiescence of the 
only honest man who has assented to it. I wish that his 
honesty and his political errors may not furnish a second 
occasion to exclaim, ' curse on his virtues, they have un- 
done his country.^ " 

The " first agent," here, who is charged with " avarice 
and corruption," undoubtedly means John Jay, who nego- 
tiated the treaty which called forth this ebullition of froth 
and passion. Mr. Jay was one of the most pure, disinter- 
ested, public-spirited, able and virtuous patriots and states- 
13 



146 THE CHARACTER OF 

men which this country ever produced ; and who, in this 
very instance, negotiated one of the most valuable treaties 
that the United States have ever entered into with any 
foreign power. And it was for assenting to and signing 
this treaty, that Mr. Jefferson broke out in the manner 
above recited. The secret of his opposition to this treaty 
was, an impression he had imbibed that it was favorable 
to Great Britain and of course injurious to France; and 
that consideration alone was sufficient to give rise to his 
hostility to it, and to excite a spirit of enmity to general 
Washington himself, even if it had not previously existed. 

But Mr. Jefferson's correspondence contains further 
evidence that he was hollow-hearted in his professions of 
friendship for general Washington. In a letter to colonel 
Burr, dated June 17, 1797, he says : — 

" I had always hoped that the popularity of the late pres- 
ident being once withdrawn from active effect, the natural 
feelings of the people towards liberty would restore the 
equilibrium between the executive and legislative depart- 
ments, which had been destroyed by the superior weight 
and effect of that popularity ; and that their natural feel- 
ings of moral obligation would discountenance the un- 
grateful predilection of the executive in favor of Great 
Britain. But, unfortunately, the preceding measures had 
already alienated the nation who were the object of them, 
had excited reaction from them, and this reaction has on 
the minds of our citizens an effect which supplies that of 
the Washington popularity. This effect was sensible on 
some of the late congressional elections, and this it is 
which has lessened the republican majority in congress. 
When it will be reinforced must depend on events, and 
these are so incalculable that I consider the future char- 
acter of our republic as in the air; indeed its future for- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 147 



T 



tune will be in the air if war is made on us by France, 
and if Louisiana becomes a Gallo-American colony." 

It is perfectly obvious that Mr. Jefferson considered 
general Washington's popularity — notwithstanding it was 
the result of greater public services than any other man 
ever rendered the country, and was founded upon the 
purest morals, the utmost disinterestedness, and the high- 
est degree of personal worth and political integrity and 
virtue — as a great public calamity; and the evil consisted 
in the fact, that we had been preserved from a close and 
intimate alliance with France during the most stormy and 
sanguinary periods of her revolutionary career. And he 
mourns, with great apparent sincerity, that his relinquish- 
ment of public office and return to private life had not 
been attended with the consequences that he had antici- 
pated ; for the people had not so suddenly forgotten his 
eminent services, and their obligations to him for benefits 
which no other man ever had rendered, and which there 
was very little probability that any other man would ever 
have it in his power to render to the country. The truth 
was, the people had not, at their elections, strengthened 
the democratic party in the house of representatives as he 
expected, which was what he meant by restoring the equi- 
librium between the executive and legislative departments. 

Having seen what sentiments Mr. Jefferson at different 
times entertained of general Washington's measures and 
conduct, the charge of monarchical principles directly al- 
leged against him in the letter to Mazzei, the support af- 
forded Freneau in carrying on his newspaper, in which 
general Washington was constantly and grossly traduced 
as being under British influence, having British principles 
and propensities, with being, in Mr. Jefferson's own lan- 
guage, an Anglo-man, and, in frequent suggessions, that 



148 THE CHARACTER OF 

his object was to change our republican system into a mo- 
narchical one — what will every frank, upright, unbiased 
mind think of this great professed champion of republican- 
ism, freedom, and all that goes to make the man'of the 
people, at hearing him say in a letter to Mr. Melish, dated 
January 13, 1813, — 

" You expected to discover the difference of our party 
^ principles in general Washington's valedictory and my 
. inaugural address. Not at all. General Washington 
did not harbor one principle of federalism. He was 
. neither an Anglo-man, a monarchist nor a separatist. 
He sincerely wished the people to have as much self- 
government as they were competent to exercise them- 
selves. The only point on which he and I ever differed 
in opinion was, that I had more confidence than he had 
in the natural integrity and discretion of the people, and 
in the safety and extent to which they might trust them- 
selves with a control over their government. He has as- 
severated to me a thousand times his determination that 
the existing government should have a fair trial, and that 
in support of it he would spend the last drop of his blood. 
He did this the more repeatedly because he knew general 
Hamilton's political bias and my apprehensions from it. 
It is a mere calumny, therefore, in the monarchists to as- 
sociate general Washington with their principles. But 
that may have happened in this case which has been often 
seen in ordinary cases, that, by often repeafmg an untruth 
men come to believe it themselves. It is a mere artifice in 
this party to bolster themselves up on the revered name 
of that first of our worthies." ^ 

" The only point on which he and I ever diflTered in 
opinion was, that I had more confidence than he in the 

* Jefferson's "Works, vol. 5, page 185. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 149 

natural integrity of the people, and in the safety and ex- 
tent to which they might trust themselves with a control 
over their government." Did not general Washington 
and he differ about the funding system, the assumption of 
the state debts, on the proclamation of neutrality, on the 
British treaty, on the necessity of ^suppressing the whisky 
insurrection and the means adopted for that purpose? 
Whether Mr. Jeirerson came to this conclusion by often 
repeating the same idea until he believed it, according to 
the rule mentioned in the foregoing extract, or not, cannot 
now be determined; but it appears to be a case that falls 
very naturally within the scope of the maxim he has there 
laid down. 

13=^ 



150 THE CHARACTER OF 



CHAPTER IX. 

Mr. Jefferson afraid to attack general Washington's character 
openly — Letter to W. Jones, January, 1814, a specimen of his 
insidiousness — Great body of republicans think of Washington 
as he does — His belief that we should eventually come to some- 
thing like the British constitution had some weight in his adopt- 
ing levees, &c. — Pains taken by the federalists to make him 
view Jefferson as a theorist, &c. — Jefferson never saw Wash- 
ington after the former left the state department, otherwise these 
impressions would have been dissipated — Letter from Jefferson 
to M. Van Buren, June, 1824 — Notice of charges in a work 
published by T. Pickering — Letter to Mazzei — Not a word in 
that letter that would not be approved by every republican in 
the United States — Not a word in that letter about France — By 
forms of British government was meant levees, &c. — Subject of 
ceremonies at Washington's second election referred to heads of 
departments — Jefferson and Hamilton thought there was too 
much ceremony — The phrase, " Samson 's in tliefield,^^ meant the 
society of the Cincinnati — Jefferson says general Washington 
knew this — Never had any reason to believe that general Wash- 
ington's feelings towards him ever changed — Washington a sin- 
cere friend to the republican principle — Knew Jefferson's suspi- 
cions of Hamilton — After the retirement of his first cabinet, gene- 
ral Washington fell into federal hands — Remarks on this letter. 

That Mr. Jefferson v^as afraid to run the risk of openly- 
attacking general Washington's principles or character is 
beyond a doubt. But that he took every opportunity, by 
insinuations, suggestions, and various other means which 
no other man ever knew how to employ with so much 
effect, to depreciate his understanding and talents, to lower 
him in the estimation of those with whom he was inti- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 151 

mate, to make him the object of party animosity and news- 
paper rancor and calumny — and this with so much art and 
address as to make it appear to a cursory observer that he 
was his sincere admirer and friend — cannot be doubted. 

And such was emphatically the course which he pursued 
towards his memory when he was preparing materials for 
future generations to read, and which he doubtless intend- 
ed should form the basis of their opinions respecting his 
own talents and character. At page 234 of the fourth 
volume of his posthumous works is a letter to Dr. Walter 
Jones, dated January 2, 1S14, which furnishes a remark- 
able specimen of the manner in which Mr. Jefferson could 
exercise his ingenuity in praising general Washington in 
one breath and in taking off the force of what he had said 
in his favor in the next. It is as follows : — 

" You say that in taking general Washington on your 
shoulders to bear him harmless through the federal coali- 
tion, you encounter a perilous topic. I do not think so. 
You have given ihe genuine history of the course of his 
mind through the trying scenes in which it was engaged, 
and of the seductions by which it was deceived but not 
depraved. I think I knew general Washington intimately 
and thoroughly, and were I called on to delineate his 
character it should be in terms like these. 

" His mind was great and pow^erful, though not so acute 
as that of a Newton, Bacon or Locke ; and a^ far as he 
saw no judgment ever was sounder. It was slow in ope- 
ration, being little aided by invention or imagination, but 
sure in conclusion. Hence the common remark of his 
officers of the advantages he derived from councils of war 
where, hearing all suggestions, he selected whatever was 
best; and certainly no general ever planned his battles 
more judiciously. But if deranged during the course of 



152 THE CHARACTER OF 

the action, if any member of his plan ivas dislocated hy sud- 
den circumstances, he was slow i7i readjustment. The 
consequence was, that he often failed in the field, and 
rarely against an enemy in station, as at Boston and York. 
He was incapable of fear, meeting personal dangers with 
the calmest unconcern. Perhaps the strongest feature in 
his character was prudence, never acting until every cir- 
cumstance, every conf)ideration was maturely weighed ; re- 
fraining if he saw a doubt, but, when once decided, going 
through with his purpose whatever obstacles opposed. His 
integrity was most pure, his justice the most inflexible I 
have ever known — no motives of interest or consanguinity, 
of friendship or hatred, being able to bias his decision. He 
was, indeed, in every sense of the word, a wise, a good, 
and a great man. His temper was naturally irritable and 
high-toned, but reflection and resolution had obtained a 
firm and habitual ascendency over it. If ever, however, 
it broke its bonds, he was most tremendous in his wrath. 
In his expenses he was honorable, but exact ; liberal in 
contributions to whatever promised utility, but frowning 
and unyielding on all visionary projects and all unworthy 
calls on his charity. His heart was not vjarm in its affec' 
lions, but he exactly calculated every man's value and gave 
him a solid esteem proportioned to it. Although in the 
circle of his friends, where he might be unreserved with 
safety, he took a free share in conversation, his colloquial 
talents were not above mediocrity, possessing neither co- 
piousness of ideas nor fluency of words. In public, when 
called on for a sudden opinion, he was unready, short and 
embarrassed. Yet he wrote readily, rather difl^usely, in 
an easy and correct style. This he had acquired by con- 
versation with the world, for his education was merely 
reading, writing and common arithmetic, to which he 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 153 

added surveying at a later day. His time was employed 
in action chiefly, reading little, and that only in agriculture 
and English history. His correspondence became neces- 
sarily extensive, and with journalizing his agricultural 
proceedings occupied most of his leisure hours within 
doors. On the whole, his character was, in its mass, per- 
fect, in nothing bad, in few points i7idiffere7it ; and it may 
truly be said, that never did nature and fortune combine 
more perfectly to make a man great and to place him in 
the same constellation with whatever worthies have mer- 
ited from man an everlasting remembrance. For his was 
the singular destiny and merit of leading the armies of his 
country successfully through an arduous war for the es- 
tablishment of its independence ; of conducting its councils 
through the birth of a government, new in its forms and 
principles, until it had settled down into a quiet and or- 
derly train ; and of scrupulously obeying the laws through 
the whole of his career, civil and military, of which the 
history of the world furnishes no other example. 

" How then can it be perilous for you to take such a 
man on your shoulders ? I am satisfied the great body of 
republicans think of him as I do. We were, indeed, dis' 
satisfied with him on his ratification of the British treaty. 
But this was short-lived. We knew his honesty, the 
wiles with which he loas encompassed, and that age had 
already begun to relax the firmness of his purposes ; and I 
am convinced he is more deeply seated in the love and 
gratitude of the republicans than in the pharisaical hom- 
age of the federal monarchists. For he was no monarchist 
from preference of his judgment. The soundness of that 
gave him correct views of the rights of man, and his se- 
vere justice devoted him to them. He has often declared 
to me that he considered our new constitution as an ex- 



154 THE CHARACTER OF 

perirnent on the practicability of republican g-overnment, 
and with what dose of liberty man could be trusted for his 
own good; that he was determined the experiment should 
have a fair trial, and would lose the last drop of his blood 
in support of it. And these declarations he repeated to 
me the oftener and the more pointedly, because he knew 
my suspicions of colonel Hamilton's views, and probably 
had heard from him the same declarations which I had, 
to wit, ' that the British constitution, with its unequal rep- 
resentation, corruption and other existing abuses, was the 
most perfect government which had ever been established 
on earth, and that a reformation of these abuses would 
make it an impracticable government.' He was naturally 
distrustful of men and inclined to gloomy apprehensions ; 
and I was ever persuaded that a belief that we must at 
length end in something like a British constitution^ had 
some weight in his adoption of the ceremonies of levees, 
birth-days, pompous meetings with congress, and other 
forms of the same character calculated to prepare us grad- 
ually for a change which he believed possible, and to let it 
come on with as little shock as might be to the public 
mind. 

" These are my opinions of general Washington which 
I would vouch at the judgment seat of God, having been 
formed on an acquaintance of thirty years. I served with 
him in the Virginia legislature from 1769 to the revo- 
lutionary war, and again a short time in congress until 
he left us to take command of the army. During the 
war and after it we corresponded occasionally, and in the 
four years of my continuance in the office of secretary of 
state our intercourse was daily, confidential and cordial. 
After I retired from that office, great and malignant pains 
were taken by our federal monarchists, and not entirely 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 155 

without effect^ to make him view me as a theorist, holding 
French principles of government which would lead infal- 
libly to licentiousness and anarchy. And to this he list- 
ened the more easily from my known disapprobation of 
the British treaty. I never saw him afterwards or these 
malignant insinuations should have been dissipated before 
his just judgment as mists before the sun. I felt on his 
death, with my countrymen, that ' verily a great man hath 
this day fallen in Israel.'" 

It is a little remarkable that if general Washington had 
determined to lose the last drop of his blood, if necessary 
to a fair experiment of our republican system of govern- 
ment, that he should, at the same time, feel so little confi- 
dence in it as to believe that we must at last end in some- 
thing like a British constitution, and, under this belief, 
that he was gradually preparing the minds of the people 
for its introduction so as not to produce too great a shock 
to their feelings. The suggestion is preposterous, and the 
measures which are mentioned as having been adopted 
for that purpose absurd and ridiculous. Could general 
Washington have ever been so weak as to imagine that 
levees, and birth-nights, and pompous meetings with con- 
gress, would have a tendency to reconcile the people of the 
United States to the establishment of a monarchy? The 
idea is probably repeated in this letter for the purpose of 
giving additional force to the remarks made in a letter to 
Mr. Madison, dated August 3, 1797, on the appearance in 
this country of the Mazzei letter, in which Mr. Jefferson 
endeavors to get rid of the natural construction put upon 
an expression in that singular document, in which he 
charges the Anglo-monarchical party (meaning the fede- 
ralists) with endeavoring to draw over us the substance, 
as they had done the form, (or, as he says in explanation, 



156 THE CHARACTER OF 

the forms,) of the British constitution. To gel rid of the 
obvious meaning of this passage, viz., that by the expres- 
sion giving us the form of the British constitution, he 
had reference to our constitution, he insists that tlie word 
should have been forms, and that he referred entirely to 
levees, -jbirth-nights and pompous inauguration proces- 
sions, &c. Before this explanation is admitted as satis- 
factory, it must be acknov^^ledged that Mr. Jefferson must 
not only have held the understanding of the people at 
large, but that of general Washington and his associates, 
in absolute contempt ; otherwise he would not have sup- 
posed that the former could have been imposed upon by 
so shallow a pretence, and that the latter must have been 
no better than mere dolts to have flattered themselves that 
a monarchy could ever have been brought to pass by such 
ridiculous means. This explanation, however, was pre- 
pared for future history, and not intended to be made 
public until after his death. And as it was done late in 
life, when age had, in some measure at least, impaired his 
faculties, his discernment probably was not as acute as it 
had once been. If this is not the true solution of the dif- 
ficulty, if he was in possession of his full powers of mind 
when he wrote this letter and laid it by for posthumous 
use, he must have believed that he had obtained such an 
ascendency over the understandings as well as the feel- 
ings and passions of men that they would believe anything 
he should tell them, however preposterous in itself or how 
little soever it might be supported by fact or reason. 

Nor is the explanation of the cause of general Wash- 
ington's alienation from Mr. Jefferson in any respect more 
satisfactory. The charge of being " a theorist," and " hold- 
ing French principles of government," was not made for 
the first time after he retired from the office of secretary of 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 157 

state. It was openly preferred against him, by the friends 
of the constitution of the United States and the support- 
ers of general Washington's administration, from the be- 
ginning; and his works show that it was well founded. 
And it was impossible in the nature of things that general 
Washington should not have been fully informed on the 
subject ; and if his judgment was as sound and his jus- 
tice as inflexible as is averred in the letter to Dr. Jones, it 
must have followed that he saw, felt, and of course ad- 
mitted its correctness. There is no room for doubt, as will 
herea,fter be made manifest, that it was the appearance of 
the Mazzei letter which produced the coolness on the part 
of general Washington. That great and virtuous man 
was not formed to submit patiently to so unfounded and 
so base an imputation from one in whom he had confided 
and for whom he had entertained feelings both of respect 
and friendship, as thai of being a monarchist in principle, 
and of course of secretly aiming to undermine and destroy 
the republican government and institutions of his country 
which he had made such unexampled efforts and sacrifices 
to establish, and which he had repeatedly, in the most 
public and solemn manner, sworn to support. Such a 
charge implied an accusation of deep and detestable hypoc- 
risy, as well as a total want of both moral and political 
integrity on his part ; and if there was any one species of 
offence which was more abhorrent to his nature than any 
other, it was that of hypocrisy. 

In the 4th volume of Mr. Jefferson's Works (page 399,) 
is a letter to Martin Van Buren, dated June 29, 1824. It 
acknowledges the receipt of one from Mr. Van Buren, com- 
municating to Mr. Jefferson a book published by colonel 
Timothy Pickering, containing strictures upon a work that 
had been printed by Mr. John Adams, formerly president 
14 



158 THE CHARACTER OF 

of the United States. In his book, colonel Pickering had 
noticed Mr. Adams's publication, and in the course of his 
remarks referred to Mr. Jefferson, which drew from him 
the principal part of this letter. The following is ' an ex- 
tract from it : — 

" The other allegation is equally false. In page 34, he 
quotes Dr. Stuart as having, twenty years ago, informed 
him that general Washington, ' when he became a private 
citizen,' called me to account for expressions in a letter to 
Mazzei, requiring, in a tone of unusual severity, an expla- 
nation of that letter. He adds of himself, ' in what man- 
ner the latter humbled himself and appeased the just re- 
sentment of Washington will never be known, as some 
time after his death, the correspondence was not to be 
found, and a diary for an important period of his presiden- 
cy was also missing.' The diary being of transactions 
during his presidency, the letter toMazzoi not known here 
until some time after he became a private citizen, and the 
pretended correspondence of course after that — I know 
not why this lost diary and supposed correspondence are 
brought together here, unless for insinuations worthy of 
the letter itself. The correspondence could not be found, 
indeed, because it had never existed. I do affirm, that 
there never passed a word, writteii or verbal, directly or 
indirectly, between general Washington and myself on the 
subject of that letter. He would never have degraded 
himself so far as to take to himself the imputation in that 
letter on the ' Samsons in combat.' The whole story is a 
fabrication, and I defy the framers of it, and all mankind, 
to produce a scrip of a pen between general Washington 
and myself on the subject, or any other evidence more 
worthy of credit than the suspicions, suppositions and pre- 
sumptions of the two persons here quoting and quoted for 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 159 

it. Witli Dr. Stuart I had not much acquaintance. I 
supposed him to be an honest man, knew him to be a very- 
weak one, and like Mr. Pickering, very prone to antipa- 
thies, boiling with party passions, and under the dominion 
of these readily welcoming fancies for facts. But, come 
the story from whomsoever it might, it is an unqualified 
falsehood. 

" This letter to Mazzei has been a precious them.e of crim- 
ination for federal malice. It was a long letter of business, 
in which was inserted a single paragraph only of political 
information as to the state of our country. In this infor- 
mation there was not one word which would not then have 
been, or would not now be approved by every republican 
in the United States, looking back to those times, as you 
will see by a faithful copy now enclosed of the whole of 
what that letter said on the subject of the United States 
or of its government. This paragraph, extracted and trans- 
lated, got into a Paris paper at a time when the persons 
in power there were laboring under very general disfavor, 
and their friends were eager to catch even at straws to 
buoy them up. To them, therefore, I have always imputed 
the interpolation of an entire paragraph additional to mine, 
which makes me charge my own country wiih ingratitude 
and injustice to France."^ There was not a word in my 

* Mr. Jefferson roundly asserts that there was not a word in his 
letter to Mazzei respecting France, and that the passage in it, as 
first published in this country, which speaks of our ingratitude to 
France^ was an interpolation. On the truth of this declaration, the 
public will form their own conclusions. That such a passage 
should have been fabricated is, to say the least, extraordinary, 
and in the author's view, extremely improbable ; especially, when 
the whole drift of his feelings and sentiments with respect to that 
nation is taken into consideration, and when we find him on other 
occasions expressing a similar sentiment respecting our indebted- 



160 THE CHARACTER OF 

letter respecting France or any of the proceedings or rela- 
tions between this country and that. Yet this interpolated 
paragraph has been the burden of federal calumny, has 
been constantly quoted by them, made the subject, of un- 
ceasing and virulent abuse, and is still quoted, as you see 
by Mr. Pickering, (page 33,) as if it were genuine and 
really written by me. And even judge Marshall makes 
history descend from its dignity, and the ermine from its 
sanctity, to exaggerate, to record and to sanction this for- 
gery. In the very last note of his book, he says, ' a letter 
from Mr. Jefferson to Mr. Mazzei, an Italian, was publish- 
ed in Florence, and republished in the Moniteur, with very 
severe strictures on the conduct of the United States.' 
And instead of the letter itself, he copies what he says are 
the remarks of the editor, which are an exaggerated com- 
mentary on the fabricated paragraph itself, and silently 
leaves to his reader to make the ready inference that these 
were the sentiments of the letter. Proof is the duty of 
the affirmative side. A negative cannot be possibly prov- 
ed. But, in defect of impossible proof of what was not in 
the original letter, I have a press copy still in my posses- 
sion. It has been shown to several, and is open to any 
one who wishes to see it. I have presumed only that the 
interpolation was done in Paris. But I never saw the let- 
ter in either its Italian or French dress, and it may have 
been done here, with the commentary handed down to 

ness to France. In a letter to Arthur Campbell, dated September 
1, 1797, not quite a month after that to Mr. Madison requesting 
his advice how to act concerning this very letter to Mazzei, he 
says, " It is true that a party has risen up among us, endeavoring 
to separate us from all friendly connection with France, to unite 
our destinies with those of Great Britain, and to assimilate our 
government to theirs." " We owe gratitude to France, justice to 
England, good will to all, and subservience to none." 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 161 

posterity by the judge. The genuine paragraph, re-trans- 
lated through Italian and French into English, as it ap- 
peared here in a federal paper, besides the mutilated hue 
which these translations and re-translations of it produced 
generally, gave a mistranslation of a single word, whick 
entirely perverted its meaning and made it a pliant and 
fertile text of misrepresentation of my political principles. 
The original, speaking of an Anglican, monarchical and 
aristocratical party which had sprung up since he left us, 
states their object to be ' to draw over us the substance, as 
they had already done the forms of the British govern- 
ment.' Now the forms here meant were the levees, birth- 
days, the pompous cavalcade to the state house on the 
meeting of congress, the formal speech from the throne, 
the procession of congress in a body to re-echo the speech 
in an answer, &c. &c. But the translator here, by sub- 
stituting form in the singular number for forms in the 
plural, made it mean the frame or organization of our gov- 
ernment, or its form of legislative, executive and judiciary 
authorities, co-ordinate and independent : to which form 
it was inferred that I was to be an enemy. In this sense 
they always quoted it, and in this sense Mr. Pickering 
still quotes it, (pages 34, 35, 38,) and countenances the in- 
ference. Now general Washington perfectly understood 
what I meant by these forms, as they were frequent sub- 
jects of conversation between us. When, on my return 
from Europe, I joined the government in March, 1790, at 
New York, I was much astonished, indeed, at the mimicry 
I found established of royal forms and ceremonies, and 
more alarmed at the unexpected phenomenon, by the mo- 
narchical sentiments I heard expressed and openly main- 
tained in every company, and among others by the high 
members of the government, executive and judiciary (geu- 
14# 



162 THE CHARACTER OF 

eral Washington alone excepted,) and by a great part of 
the legislature, save only some members who had been 
of the old congress and a very few of recent introduction. 
I took occasion, at various times, of expressing to general 
Washington my disappointment at the symptoms of a 
change of principle, and that I thought them encouraged 
by the forms and ceremonies which I found prevailing, 
not at all in character with the simplicity of republican 
government, and looking as if wishfully to those of Eu- 
ropean courts. His general explanations to me were, that 
when he arrived at New York to enter on the executive 
administration of the new government, he observed to 
those who were to assist him, that placed as he was in an 
office entirely new to him, unacquainted with the forms 
and ceremonies of other governments, still less apprized of 
those which might be properly established here, and him- 
self perfectly indifferent to all forms, he wished them to 
consider and prescribe what they should be ; and the task 
was assigned particularly to general Knox, a man of 
parade, and to colonel Humphreys, who had resided 
some time at a foreign court. They, he said, were 
the authors of the present regulations, and that others 
were proposed so highly strained that he absolutely re- 
jected them. Attentive to the difference of opinion pre- 
vailing on this subject, when the term of his second elec- 
tion arrived, he called the heads of departments together, 
observed to them the situation in which he had been at 
the commencement of the government, the advice he had 
taken, and the course he had observed in compliance with 
it ; that a proper occasion had now arrived of revising that 
course, of correcting in it any particulars not approved in 
experience ; and he desired us to consult together, agree 
on any changes we should think for the better, and that he 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 163 

should willingly conform to what we should advise. We 
met at my office. Hamilton and myself agreed at once 
that there was too much ceremony for the character of our 
government, and, particularly, that the parade of the in- 
stallation at New York ought not to be copied on the pre- 
sent occasion, that the president should desire the chief 
justice to attend him at his chambers, that he should ad- 
minister the oath of office to him in the presence of the 
higher officers of the government, and that the certificate 
of the fact should be delivered to the secretary of state to 
be recorded. Randolph and Knox differed from us, the 
latter vehemently : they thought it not advisable to change 
any of the established forms, and we authorized Randolph 
to report our opinions to the president. As these opinions 
were divided, and no positive advice given as to any 
change, no change was made. Thus the forms which I 
had censured in my letter to Mazzei, were perfectly under- 
stood by general Washington, and were those which he 
himself but barely tolerated. He had furnished me a 
proper occasion for proposing their reformation, and my 
opinion not prevailing, he knew I could not have meant 
any part of the censure for him. 

" Mr. Pickering quotes, too, (page 34) the expression in 
the letter of ' the men who were Samsons in the field and 
Solomons in the council, but who had had their heads 
shorn by the harlot England ; ' or, as expressed in their 
re-translation, ' the men who were Solomons in council 
and Samsons in combat, but whose hair had been cut off 
by the whore England.' Now this expression also was 
perfectly understood by general Washington. He knew 
that I meant it for the Cincinnati generally, and that, from 
what had passed between us at the commencement of that 
institution, I could not mean to include him. When the 



164 THE CHARACTER OE 

first meeting was called for its establishment, I was a 
member of the congress then sitting at Annapolis. Gen- 
eral Washington wrote to me, asking my opinion on that 
proposition, and the course, if any, which I thought con- 
gress would observe respecting it. I wrote him frankly 
my own disapprobation of it ; that I found the members of 
(Congress generally in the same sentiment ; that I thought 
they would take no express notice of it, but that in all ap- 
pointments of truth, honor, or profit, they would silently 
pass by all candidates of that order and give a uniform 
preference to others. On his way to the first meeting in 
Philadelphia, which I think was in the spring of 1784, he 
called on me at Annapolis. It was a little after candle- 
light, and he sat with me until after midnight, conversing, 
almost exclusively, on that subject. While he was feel- 
ingly indulgent to the motives which might induce the of- 
ficers to promote it, he concurred with me entirely in con- 
demning it ; and when I expressed an idea that, if the 
hereditary quality were suppressed, the institution might 
perhaps be indulged during the lives of the officers now 
living and who had actually served, ' No,' he said, ' not a 
fibre of it ought to be left, to be an eye-sore to the public, 
a ground of dissatisfaction, and a line of separation be- 
tween them and their country :' and he left me with a de- 
termination to use all his influence for its entire suppres- 
sion. On his return from the meeting, he called on me 
again, and related to me the course the thing had taken. 
He said that from the beginning he had used every endeavor 
to prevail on the officers to renounce the project altogether, 
urging the many considerations which would render it 
odious to their fellow-citizens and disreputable and injuri- 
ous to themselves ; that he had at length prevailed on 
most of the old officers to reject it, although with great 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 165 

and warm opposition from others, and especially the 
younger ones, among whom he named colonel William S. 
Smith as particularly intemperate. But that in this state 
of things, when he thought the question safe and the 
meeting drawing to a close, major L'Enfant arrived from 
France with a bundle of eagles, for which he had been 
sent there, with letters from the French officers who had 
served in America, praying for admission into the order, 
and a solemn act of their king permitting them to wear its 
ensign. This, he said, changed the face of matters at 
once, produced an entire revolution of sentiment and turn- 
ed the torrent so strongly in an opposite direction that it 
could be no longer withstood : all he could then obtain 
was a suppression of the hereditary quality. He added, 
that it was the French applications, and respect for the ap- 
probation of the king, which saved the establishment in its 
modified and temporary form. Disapproving thus of the 
institution as much as I did, and conscious that I knew 
him to do so, he could never suppose that I meant to in- 
clude him among the Samsons in the field, whose object 
was to draw over us the form, as they made the letter say, 
of the British government, and especially its aristocratic 
member, an hereditary house of lords. Add to this, that 
the letter saying, ' two out of the three branches of leg- 
islature were against us,' was an obvious exception of 
him ; it being well known that the majorities in the two 
branches of senate and representatives were the very in- 
struments which carried, in opposition to the old and real 
republicans, the measures which were the subjects of con- 
demnation in this letter. General Washington, then, un- 
derstanding perfectly what and whom I meant to desig- 
nate, in both phrases, and that they could not have any 
application or view to himself, could find in neither any 



166 THE CHARACTER OF 

cause of offence to himself, and therefore neither needed 
nor ever asked any explanation of them from me. Had 
it even been otherwise, they must know very little of gen- 
eral AVashington, who should believe to be within the laws 
of his character what Dr. Stuart is said to have imputed 
to him. Be this, however, as it may, the story is infa- 
mously false in every article of it. My last parting with 
general Washington was at the inauguration of Mr. 
Adams, in March, 1797, and was warmly affectionate ; 
and I never had any reason to believe any change on his 
part^ as there certainly was none on mine. But one ses- 
sion of congress intervened between that and his death, the 
year folloioing, in my passage to and from which, as it 
happened to be not convenient to call upon him, I never 
had another opportunity ; and as to the cessation of cor- 
respondence observed during that short interval, no partic- 
ular circumstance occurred for epistolary communication, 
and both of us were too much oppressed with letter-writing 
to trouble either the other with a letter about nothing. 

" The truth is, that the federalists, pretending to be the 
exclusive friends of general Washington, have ever done 
what they could to sink his character by hanging theirs on 
it, and by representing as the enemy of republicans him 
who, of all men, is best entitled to the appellation of the 
father of that republic which they were endeavoring to 
subvert, and the republicans to maintain. They cannot 
deny, because the elections proclaimed the truth, that the 
great body of the nation approved the republican measures. 
General Washington was himself sincerely a friend to the 
republican principles of our constitution. His faith, per- 
haps, in its duration might not have been as confident as 
mine ; but he repeatedly declared to me, that he was de- 
termined it should have a fair chance for success, and that 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 167 

he would lose the last drop of his blood in its support 
against any attempt which might be made to change it 
from its republican form. He made these declarations 
the oftener, because he knew my suspicions that Hamilton 
had other views, and he wished to quiet my jealousies on 
th^s subject. For Hamilton frankly avowed, that he con- 
sidered the British constitution, with all the corruptions of 
its administration, as the most perfect model of govern- 
ment which had ever been devised by the wit of man — 
professing, however, at the same time, that the spirit of 
this country was so fundamentally republican, that it would 
be visionary to think of introducing monarchy here, and 
that, therefore, it was the duty of its administrators to con- 
duct it on the principles their constituents had elected. 

" General Washington, after the retirement of his first 
cabinet and the composition of his second, entirely federal, 
and at the head of which was Mr. Pickering himself, had 
no opportunity of hearing both sides of any question. His 
measures, consequently, took more of the hue of the party 
in whose hands he was. These measures were certainly 
not approved by the republicans ; yet were they not im- 
puted to him, but to the counselors around him ; and his 
prudence so far restrained their impassioned course and 
bias, that no act of strong mark, during the remainder of 
his administration, excited much dissatisfaction. He lived 
too short a time after, and too much withdrawn from infor- 
mation, to correct the views into which he had been delud- 
ed ; and the continued assiduities of the party drew him 
into the vortex of their intemperate career, separated him 
still farther from his real friends, and excited him to ac- 
tions and expressions of dissatisfaction which grieved 
them, but could not loosen their affections from him. 
They would not suffer the temporary aberration to weigh 



168 THE CHARACTER OF 

against the immeasurable merits of his life ; and although 
they tumbled his seducers from their places, they preserv- 
ed his memory embalmed in their hearts with undimin- 
ished love and devotion; and there it will forever remain 
embalmed, in entire oblivion of every temporary thing 
which might cloud the glories of his splendid life. It is 
vain, then, for Mr. Pickering and his friends to endeavor 
to falsify his character, by representing him as an enemy 
to republicans and republican principles, and as exclusive- 
ly the friend of those who were so ; and had he lived 
longer, he would have returned to his ancient and unbias- 
ed opinions, would have replaced his confidence in those 
whom the people approved and supported, and would have 
seen that they ivere only restoring and acting on the prin- 
ciples of his own first administration. 

" I find that I have written you a very long letter, or 
rather a history. The civility of having sent me a copy 
of Mr. Pickering's diatribe would scarcely justify its ad- 
dress to you. I do not publish these things, because my 
rule of life has been never to harass the public with send- 
ings and provings of personal slanders ; and least of all 
would I descend into the arena of slander with such a 
champion as Mr. Pickering. I have ever trusted to the 
justice and consideration of my fellow citizens, and have 
no reason to repent it or to change my course. At this 
time of life, too, tranquility is the summum bonum. But 
though I decline all newspaper controversy, yet when 
falsehoods have been advanced, within the knowledge of 
no one so much as myself, I have sometimes deposited a 
contradiction in the hands of a friend which, if worth 
preservation, may, when I am no more nor those whom I 
might offend, throw light on history, and recall that into 
the path of truth." 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 169 

This extraordinary document having been obviously 
prepared to " throw light on history " when Mr. Jefferson 
was no more, it has been thought expedient to give it at 
length, in order that his views upon several important 
topics contained in it might be clearly and fully under- 
stood. 

The first subject that is worthy of notice is the account 
given by Dr. Stuart to colonel Pickering, that a portion of 
a correspondence between general Washington and Mr. 
Jefferson, and of general Washington's diary relative to 
the Mazzei letter, was not, after general Washington's 
death, to be found. Mr. Jefferson pronounces the whole 
story to be a fabrication ; and adds, " I defy the framers 
of it, and all mankind, to produce a scrip of a pen between 
general Washington and myself on the subject." Wheth- 
er this denial is intended to apply to the story of the loss 
of the diary as well as the correspondence, is not perfectly 
clear from the language made use of. The challenge to 
produce it is confined to the latter; and if that had been 
surreptitiously obtained from the Washington papers and 
destroyed, there was no risk in making it. And situated 
as he was at the time of writing this article he had the 
strongest personal inducements, especially as there was 
no person living to contradict him, to make the case as fa- 
vorable to his own interests as was in his power ; and, 
therefore, if he was less scrupulous about the means used 
for the purpose, it cannot be a matter of surprise to any 
person acquainted with his character and the circumstan- 
ces in which he was placed. 

The manner in which he attempts to discredit Dr. Stu- 
art is very characteristic. He says that he had but little 
acquaintance with him ; that he supposed him to be an 
honest man, but knew him to be a very weak one, and, 
15 



170 THE CHARACTER OF 

like Mr. Pickering, very prone to antipathies, boiling with 
party passions and under their dominion, readily welcom- 
ing fancies for facts. The loss of part of the diary was 
asserted many years before the date of this letter l^y gen- 
eral Washington's family connections, and the fact has 
always been understood and believed upon the most un- 
questionable testimony. If general Washington consid- 
ered Mr. Jefferson's calumnies of sufficient importance to 
warrant him in calling for an explanation of the Mazzei 
letter, nothing is more probable than that he WTOte to him 
for that purpose. Of the probability of his having done 
so, every man, after examining the circumstances, will 
form his own opinion. It will be well to bear in mind, 
however, that Mr. Jefferson's affirming or denying a thing 
to exist is not always conclusive evidence that such is the 
case, as it is believed will satisfactorily appear when this 
work is finished. It is, however, not a little remarkable 
that he should attempt to discredit Dr. Stuart as a witness 
on the ground that he was under the influence of party 
passions and was prone to welcome fancies for facts. Mr. 
Jefferson may be justly styled, in the language of ma- 
sonry, the grand master of parties and party feelings in 
this country. As soon as he returned from France and 
took his seat in the national cabinet, he commenced the 
formation and establishment of the party which, under his 
auspices and by the force of his influence and exertions, 
became the prevailing power in the Union, and has con- 
tinued, under one leader and another, but all invoking his 
name and principles, down to the present time. It has 
already been shown from under his own hand that, when 
he entered upon the duties of chief magistrate of the Uni- 
ted States, his earliest complaint was, that " the sect " of 
federalists alone held offices under the government and 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 171 

that he should make removals until he had introduced re- 
publicans enough to restore an equilibrium. The party 
that he thus formed and brought into power became as 
vindictive tovi^ards their opponents as they were greedy 
for office; and Dr. Stuart's party-passions must have been 
heated to a seven-fold degree, if they exceeded in intensity 
those of the demagogues of whom Mr. Jefferson was the 
leader. And as for substituting fancies for facts, no man 
who considered himself, or was viewed by his followers 
as having a claim to the title of great^ was ever more re- 
markable for the adoption of the same practice than him- 
self. 

Having disposed of Dr. Stuart, Mr. Jefferson proceeds, 
in his letter to Mr. Van Buren, to a long train of remarks 
upon the use which the federalists have made of the letter 
to Mazzei. He says it had been a precious theme of fed- 
eral malice. Having made it the subject of a critical 
examination in another work it is not necessary for the 
author to go over the same ground again. Mr. Jef- 
ferson says that, in translating it, a single word having 
been improperly rendered in the singular number instead 
of the plural, that is, the word form instead of forms, it 
entirely perverted its meaning and made it the fertile text 
of misrepresentation of his political principles. And he 
labors very earnestly to show that, instead of alluding to 
the constitution of the United States as containing the 
form of a monarchical government which the monarchical 
party were endeavoring to draw over us, he had reference 
only to the president's levees, birth-days, and other cere- 
monies which were practiced at the seat of government. 
It is difficult to imagine anything more consummately 
ridiculous and absurd than for a man for whom his par- 
tizans have united to affix the title not merely of great but 



172 THE CHARACTER Of 

of illustrious, gravely, and in a document which he had 
deliberately prepared for posthumous publication and for 
the express purpose of throwing light on history, gravely 
to tell future generations that he was extremely fearful 
lest George Washington and his cabinet should change 
a republican government which he and his federal friends 
had just formed, organized and put in operation, into a 
monarchy, the very kind of government they had just 
succeeded in throwing off from their country. No man 
of sense and of common honesty will believe any such 
thing. But they will believe that in making use of this 
language in a private letter to a foreigner, at the distance 
of four thousand miles, he had reference to the constitu- 
tion of the United States, which is strictly a form of gov- 
ernment; whilst levees and birth-nights, &g., are in no 
sense forms of government, and have no relation Xo forms 
of government, nor could they, in the nature of things, 
have had any tendency to change our government into a 
monarchy, however frequent, fashionable or fascinating 
they might have been. The highest grade of office they 
were calculated to produce was a master of ceremonies, 
who, of all the varieties of form which ambition may 
be supposed to assume is the least likely to terminate in 
a monarch or a sovereign of any description. 

And, as if Mr. Jefferson was bent upon making himself 
ridiculous, after taking great pains to display the fears 
which he derived from this source to the liberties of the 
country, and after having, in the earlier parts of his cor- 
respondence and the later entries in his "^7ia," uniformly 
spoken of Alexander Hamilton as the most decided mon- 
archist, in sentiment at least, that there was in the Union, 
when giving an account of a formal meeting of the cabinet 
at the commencement of general Washington's second pe- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 173 

riod in office in order to consult upon the important ques- 
tion whether it was expedient to aher or abrogate any of 
these anti-republican practices of the first administration, 
he says, " Hamilton and myself agreed at once that there 
was too much ceremony for the character of our govern- 
ment, and proposed alterations, while Randolph and Knox 
differed from them; and the consequence was, that no 
reformation of this threatening evil was effected. Here, 
then, it appears that Randolph, a Virginia democrat and a 
Jeffersonian republican, was in favor of continuing these 
dangerous monarchical ceremionies at the imminent haz- 
ard not only of our liberties but of the very nature of our 
government, whilst Alexander Hamilton — the man who, 
in Mr. Jefferson's opinion, was the most devoted monarchist 
in the nation, and a monarchist, too, on the principle of cor- 
ruption — was decidedly in favor of abrogating the very 
ceremonies which, according to the notions of Mr. Jeffer- 
son, were calculated to introduce the kind of government 
to which he gave the preference over all others. The 
person who can swallow all this nonsense need be under 
no apprehensions of ever being suffocated by absurdities 
of any description. 

Mr. Jefferson then enters upon a long disquisition upon 
the phrase in the letter, " Samsons in the field and Solo- 
mons in council, whose heads had been shorn by the harlot 
England.'^ He says, " this expression was perfectly un- 
derstood by general Washington." If so it must have 
been by the exercise of his own ingenuity and discern- 
ment, for it has been seen by his declaration in this letter 
that nothing had ever passed between him and general 
Washington on the subject of this letter. He acknowl- 
edges that he never saw general Washington after its 
publication in this country, and he avers that he never 
15^ 



174 THE CHARACTER OF 

wrote anything to him concerning it. He says that gene- 
ral Washington knew he meant it for the Cincinnati gen- 
erally, and that, from what passed between them at the 
commencement of that institution, he could not niean to 
include him. That Mr. Jefferson was opposed to the 
Cincinnati, and was, or pretended to be, apprehensive that 
an association purely benevolent and charitable in its con- 
stitution and objects, and composed of men who had 
fought, suffered and bled in achieving their country's free- 
dom and independence, would prove mischievous and per- 
haps be the means of changing the republic into a monarchy, 
there is no room to doubt. That he had in reality any 
such fears is far more questionable. And when he found 
that, after all his efforts to instill such suspicions and jeal- 
ousies as he affected to entertain into the pure and vir- 
tuous mind of Washington, and notwithstanding all his 
endeavors to alarm him on that subject, Washington ac- 
cepted, and held for years, the office of president general 
over the society, it is little short of ludicrous to find Mr. 
Jefferson, at so late a period, going back to the old ground, 
and ascribing the phraseology above referred to in the 
Mazzei letter to his apprehensions respecting the objects 
of that institution. At the time when the Mazzei letter 
was written, the society had existed for more than twelve 
years. The manner in which their evil designs were to 
be accomplished is not specified. An Irish judge in South 
Carolina wrote a pamphlet to warn the country against 
them, but like most modern prophecies the fulfillment 
never occurred. Mr. Jefferson was, as usual, more cau- 
tious and more cunning in his prognostications of evil. 
He dealt in general, undefined apprehensions, throwing 
out to the populace and their leaders cant phrases, like 
that of Samsons in the field and Solomons in council, the 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 175 

probable effect of which he understood as well as any 
man who ever lived. But as it is now more than fifty 
years since the society of the Cincinnati was formed, and 
a very large proportion of the members have passed off 
the stage of life, and none of his evil forebodings ever came 
to pass, it is not unreasonable to conclude that his fears 
were affected and not real, and that his object in giving 
them out was, as it always was through life, in a prime 
degree selfish and sinister. There is very little more 
probability that general Washington, when he saw the 
letter to Mazzei, supposed the expression " Samsons in 
the field and Solomons in council," alluded to the society 
of the Cincinnati than that he imagined that it had ref- 
erence to the knights of St. John of Jerusalem. A small 
number of the revolutionary officers did, indeed, go into 
public life. Among these was general Knox, who was 
the first secretary of war under general Washington's ad- 
ministration, appointed to that office immediately after the 
organization of the government. He was the man from 
whom the plan of establishing the society is said to have 
originally proceeded. After holding the office of secretary 
of war nearly five years, he resigned it in December, 1794. 
It is very certain that during that period general Wash- 
ington, notwithstanding all Mr. Jeflerson's insinuations 
and suggestions, had formed no suspicions of his alle- 
giance to his country, or of his designs or even wishes to 
introduce a monarchy into the United States. Upon ac- 
cepting his resignation the president expressed" himself in 
a letter to him as follows: — "I cannot suffer you, how- 
ever, to close your public service, without uniting to the 
satisfaction which must arise in your own mind from con- 
scious rectitude, assurances of my most perfect persuasion 
that you have deserved well of your country. 



176 THE CHARACTER OF 

"My personal knowledge of your exertions, while it 
authorizes me to hold this language, justifies the sincere 
friendship which I have borne you and which will accom- 
pany you in every situation of life." Mr. Jefferson, with 
an intimate and thorough acquaintance with general 
Washington for thirty years, must have ascertained that 
he would not have expressed himself in respectful and 
even affectionate language to any man of whose merit he 
entertained a single doubt, and much more to any man 
who had been plotting the destruction of his country's 
freedom. The inference is therefore clear and irresistible 
that he had no suspicions of general Knox, and there is 
as little reason to believe that he had any fears of such 
designs in the society of the Cincinnati at large, because 
he never would have suffered himself to be placed at its 
head if such had been the case. 

Mr. Jefferson, however, says further that, " Disapprov- 
ing of the institution as much as I did, and conscious that 
I knew him to do so, he could never suppose that I meant 
to include him among the Samsons in the field, whose 
object was to draw over us the form, as they made the 
letter say, of the British government, and especially its 
aristocratic member and hereditary house of lords. Add to 
this that the letter saying, ' that two out of the three 
branches of legislature were against us,' was an obvious 
exception of him ; it being well known that the majorities 
in the two branches of senate and representatives were 
the very instruments which carried, in opposition to the old 
and real republicans, the measures which were the subjects 
of condemnation in this letter." 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 177 



CHAPTER X. 

The society of Cincinnati could not have been meant by the phrase 
" Samsons in the field '' — The language of the Mazzei letter, as 
published in Jefferson's "V\"orks, absurd — Jefierson's last parting 
with general "Washington — The time of his death, as stated in 
the letter to Van Buren not true — Federalists, pretending to be 
Washington's friends, did what they could to sink his character 
— The measures of his second administration not imputable to 
him, but to his counselors — Not approved by the republicans — 
Answers of the houses to his speech when about to retire, op- 
posed by Giles — Judge Marshall's account of the feelings of the 
republican party upon the ratification of the British treaty — 
Letters to Melish, W. Jones, and John Adam's — Jefferson says 
general Washington was not a federalist — No truth in the asser- 
tion that Washington was not a federalist — Letter to Jay, May, 
1796 — Letter to Jeflerson, July, 1796 — No correspondence after 
this letter appears on Washington's books with Jefferson — Let- 
ter to La Fayette, December, 1798 — to Timothy Pickering, Jan- 
uary, 1799— To P. Henry, January, 1799— Letters to H. Lee— 
[Backe's and Freheau's papers, and western insurrection] — Let- 
ter to J. Jay — Washington not a republican in the sense of Jef- 
ferson — Washington a federalist — Letter to B. Washington, 
May, 1799 — Jefferson's letters intended for history. 

That the society of the Cincinnati, as a body, were 
not, and could not have been, the persons alluded to in the 
expression " Samsons in the field," is evident from the 
fact, that very few of them had gone into public life. A 
great proportion of the officers of whom that society was 
composed, had returned to their homes, and engaged in dif- 
ferent occupations and pursuits, taking no further part in 
the political concerns of the country, than to lend their sup- 



178 THE CHARACTER OF 

port, according to their principles, by their suffrages and 
their example, to the constitution, government and laws of 
the Union, and the general republican institutions of the 
nation. If the original letter to Mazzei was in the' precise 
form in which what Mr. Jefferson calls a press copy of it 
appears in his posthumous works, he must have expressed 
himself in a very careless and inaccurate manner. In that 
he says, " against us are the executive, the judiciary, two 
out of three branches of the legislature.^' Neither the 
executive, nor the judiciary, is a branch of the legislature. 
The constitution divides the government into three branch- 
es — legislative, executive and judicial. The first section 
of that instrument says, ^^All legislative powers herein 
granted shall be vested in a congress of the United States, 
which shall consist of a senate and house of representa- 
tives." In this letter, as first published in this country, 
the expression was, " the executive and the judiciary, two 
of the three branches of our government. '^ This phraseo- 
logy was perfectly correct, and such as might have been 
expected from a scholar, who understood the meaning and 
use of language, and from a statesman, who had long held 
one of the high offices of the government. And it will 
not be an easy task to persuade any reasonable mind, that 
Mr. Jefferson could have expressed himself so loosely, and 
so inaccurately, on a ^subject so familiar to him as that of 
the great divisions of power in the constitution of the 
United States. The language of the improved copy of 
the letter is nonsensical. In the letter as first published, 
it is clear and explicit; and just such as he might be ex- 
pected to mqj^'e use of on such an occasion as that which 
called forth the letter. That the copy published in his 
works, was modified so as to answer the object he had in 
view, there is very little room to doubt. He wanted to 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 179 

provide a way to except general Washington from the gen- 
eral charge of anti-republicanism, alleged against the fed- 
eralists generally in the letter ; and under the influence 
of that feeling, he changed the phraseology of the letter 
in such a manner as he thought would admit of such an 
exception. In endeavoring, however, to guard himself 
against one evil, he left himself exposed to the full force of 
another, as will be shown hereafter in some further re- 
marks upon this singular composition. 

Mr. Jefferson then says, " My last parting with general 
Washington was at the inauguration of Mr. Adams, in 
March, 1797, and was warmly affectionate ; and I never 
had any reason to believe any change on his part, as there 
certainly was none on mine. But one session of congress 
intervened between that and his death the year following, 
in my passage to and from which, as it happened to be not 
convenient to call on him, I never had another opportuni- 
ty ; and as the cessation of correspondence observed dur- 
ing that short interval, no particular circumstance occurred 
for epistolary communication, and both of us were too much 
oppressed with letter-writing, to trouble, either the other, 
with a letter about nothing." 

This passage is one of the most extraordinary that can 
be found in Mr. Jefferson's extensive correspondence. 
General Washington died on the 14ih of December, 1799. 
From March 4, 1797, to December 14, 1799, is two years, 
nine months, and ten days. Mr. Jefferson says, " But one 
session of congress intervened between Mr. Adams's in- 
auguration, viz. March 4, 1797, and general Washington's 
death, December 14, 1799. Mr. Adams called an extra- 
ordinary session in May, 1797. Congress again met in 
November, 1797, some weeks earlier than the usual time 
of their assembling, and they continued in session until 



180 THE CHARACTER OF 

the July following — being one of the longest sessions that 
has ever occurred. In December, 1798, the usual annual 
session commenced ; and in December, 1799, the fourth 
session begun, ten days before general Washington's death. 
Thus, in order to shorten the time during which no inter- 
course occurred between himself and general Washing- 
ton, after Mr. Adams's inauguration, and to give a plausi- 
ble reason for their not meeting after that event, Mr. Jef- 
ferson strikes out a year at least from the lapse of time, 
and two entire sessions of congress, and a small part of a 
third, from the events of the period. And what renders 
it the more extraordinary is the fact, that during the whole 
of the time alluded to, Mr. Jefferson was vice president of 
the United States, and by virtue of his office president of 
the senate, and was actually present, and presided over 
that body, at each of these sessions. Of course, he could 
not have been ignorant of the fact that they were held in 
regular order. By adverting to general Washington's 
correspondence, recently published by J. Sparks, it will be 
seen, that from about the middle of November, 1798, to 
the middle of December following, general Washington 
was in Philadelphia, which was at that time the seat of 
government. When he left that city for Mount Vernon, 
congress had been in session about two weeks. Whether 
the vice president had, during that period, taken his seat 
as president of the senate, or not, the auther of this work 
has not the means of ascertaining. If he had, he must 
have been in Philadelphia before general Washington 
left it. If he had not, he postponed the time of enter- 
ing upon his official duties to a very late period, and it 
might have been with the view of avoiding a meeting with 
him. 

Mr. JefTerson says, " The truth is, that the federalists 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 181 

pretending to be the exclusive friends of general Wash- 
ington, have ever done what they could to sink his charac- 
ter, by hanging theirs on it, and by representing as the 
enemy of republicans him, who, of all men, is best entitled 
to the appellation of the father of that republic which they 
were endeavoring to subvert, and the republicans to main- 
tain." That general Washington believed those to be 
his friends who supported his administration, and defend- 
ed the measures which he recommended and approved, 
who agreed with him and with whom he agreed in senti- 
ment on all important national questions, and who treated 
hitn on all occasions with the highest degree of esteem, re- 
spect and confidence, cannot be doubted. That those who 
opposed and thwarted the general course of his adminis- 
tration, endeavored to defeat the great measures which 
he recommended, misrepresented his principles, falsified 
his sentiments, accused him of entertaining monarchical 
predilections and propensities, and endeavored by false- 
hood and calumny to injure, and, as far as was in their 
power, to destroy his character, were justly considered by 
him as his enemies, cannot be denied. The former were 
federalists ; the latter were, to a man, what Mr. Jefferson 
so ostentatiously calls republicans. Mr. Jefferson says in 
the letter to Mr. Van Buren, " general Washington, after 
the retirement of his first cabinet and the cornposiiion of 
his second, entirely federal, and at the head of which was 
Mr. Pickering himself, had no opportunity of hearing both 
sides of any question. His measures, consequently, took 
more the hue of the party in whose hands he was. These 
measures certainly were not approved by the republicans; 
yet were they not imputed to him, but to he counselors 
around him." — Thus to avoid the charge of federalisnj on 
behalf of general Washington, Mr. Jefferson reduces him 
to the degraded condition of a dupe — a man not suflered 
16 



182 THE CHARACTER OF 

to exercise his own judgment or understanding, but im- 
posed upon by artful advisers, who deprived him of the 
privileges of a free agent, and made him a tool in their 
own hands. The federalists manifested none of this kind 
of friendship for him. They admired the soundness of his 
principles, the clearness of his understanding, the correct- 
ness of his judgment, and the purity of his motives; and 
above all, his entire independence of all selfishness and all 
party views and interests. 

Mr. Jefferson in his letter to Dr. Jones, heretofore refer- 
red to, says, " We were, indeed, dissatisfied with him on 
his ratification of the British treaty. But this was short- 
lived." So long after the ratification of that treaty as 
near the close of his second administration, he gave notice 
to congress of his intention to withdraw from public life ; 
the answers of both houses to that annunciation, evinced 
an undiminished veneration for his character, their grate- 
ful sense of the eminent services he had rendered his 
country, and the regret they felt at his retiring from office ; 
but Mr. William B. Giles, a member from Virginia, an in- 
timate and confidential friend of Mr. Jefferson, and one of 
his most approved republicans, moved in the house of 
representatives, to strike out the passage from the answer 
which expressed a grateful conviction that his wise, firm, 
and patriotic administration, had been signally conducive 
to the success of the present form of government. In his 
remarks on the question, Mr. Giles said, " If he stood 
alone in his opinion, he would declare, that he was not 
convinced that the administration of the government for 
these six years had been wise and firm. He did not re- 
regret the president's retiring from office. He hoped he 
would retire, and enjoy the happiness that awaited his re- 
tirement. He believed it would more conduce to that hap- 
^piaess that he should retire than if he should remain in 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 183 

office."^ In this measure of republican friendship for gen- 
eral Washington, Mr. Giles obtained the votes of ten of 
the members of the house in addition to his own. These 
are the people whom Mr. Jefferson calls general Washing- 
ton's real friends, who preserved his memory embalmed 
in their hearts. 

Judge Marshall, however, presents their friendly feel- 
ings in a somewhat different light. After giving an ac- 
count of the proceedings on the British treaty, he says — 
*' If the ratification of the treaty increased the number of 
its open advocates, by stimulating the friends of the ad- 
ministration to exert themselves in its defence, it seemed 
also to give increased acrimony to the opposition. Such 
hold had the president taken of the affections of the peo- 
ple, that even his enemies had deemed it generally neces- 
sary to preserve, with regard to him, external marks of 
decency and respect. Previous to the mission of Mr. Jay, 
charges against the chief magistrate, though frequently in- 
sinuated, had seldom been directly made ; and the cover 
under which the attacks upon his character were conduct- 
ed, evidenced the caution with which it was deemed neces- 
sary to proceed. That mission visibly affected the deco- 
rum which had been usually observed towards him, and 
the ratification of the treaty brought into open view sensa- 
tions which had long been ill concealed. With equal 
virulence, the military and political character of the presi- 
dent was attacked, and he was averred to be totally desti- 
tute of merit either as a soldier or a statesman. The 
calumnies with which he was assailed were not confined 
to his public conduct ; even his qualities as a man were 
the subjects of detraction. That he had violated the con- 
stitution in negotiating a treaty without the previous ad- 
vice of the senate, and in embracing within that treaty 

* Pitkin's Pol. and Civ. Hist., vol. 2, page 495. 



184 THE CHARACTER OF 

subjects belonging exclusively to the legislature, was open- 
ly maintained, for which an impeachment was publicly 
suggested ; and that he had drawn from the treasury for 
his private use more than the salary annexed to his office 
was unblushingly asserted." Let it be remembered, that 
the party from whom these attacks proceeded, and by 
whom these charges were made, was formed by Mr. Jeffer- 
son, that they were under his absolute control and direc- 
tion, depended entirely on his countenance and influence 
for their growth and success, and could have been at any 
moment checked or silenced in their career, if he had 
thought it expedient to exert his power over them. That 
power not having been exercised, he is justly responsible 
for the general course pursued by them, as well as for the 
particular measures by which their schemes were carried 
into effect. 

That the view which has been taken of this subject, and 
that the facts disclosed furnish sufficient evidence that Mr. 
Jefferson w^as the enemy of general Washington, it is be- 
lieved cannot be denied. 

At the same time, whilst Mr. Jefferson was, in the se- 
cret and artful manner that has been described, endeavor- 
ing to undermine general Washington's reputation, and 
depreciate his talents and patriotism, he had sagacity 
enough to know, that it would not be safe for him to come 
out openly, and without disguise, and attack him before 
the nation. But whilst endeavoring by insinuations, and 
covert suggestions, to injure his character, he still car- 
ried on the farce of professing to be his friend and admir- 
er ; and ascribed all his errors and mistakes in palicy and 
measures, to the undue and improper influence exercised 
over him by his federal associates. But being perfectly 
aware of his extensive popularity, and of the extreme at- 
tachment of the people of the United States to him as 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 185 

their great benefactor, as well as of their sincere and fer- 
vent gratitude for his services, both civil and military, Mr. 
Jefferson took great pains to inculcate the idea, that gen- 
eral Washington was, in reality, what in the Jefferson vo- 
cabulary was called, a " republican ; " but that, by the in- 
fluence and address of those who were associated with him 
in the government, he had been drawn into an approval of 
their measures; and, at the same time, if he had been left 
tohimself, he would have gone cordially with the Jeffer- 
son party. In a letter to Mr. Melish, dated January 13, 
1813, (vol. 4, Jefferson's Works, page 182) he says, '* You 
expected to discover the difference of our pari)'- principles in 
general Washington's valedictory and my inaugural ad- 
dress. Not at all. General Washington did not harbor 
one pri7iciple of federalism. He was neither an Anglo- 
man, a monarchist, nor a separatist. He sincerely wish- 
ed the people to have as much self-government as they 
were competent to exercise themselves. The only point 
on which he and I differed in opinion, was, that I had 
more confidence than he had in the natural integrity and 
discretion of the people, and in the safety and extent to 
which they might trust themselves with a control over their 
government." 

In a letter to Dr. Walter Jones, which has been referred" 
to in this work, he says, " I am satisfied the great body of 
republicans think of him as I do. We were, indeed, dis- 
satisfied with him on his ratification of the British treaty. 
But this was short-lived. We knew his honesty, the 
wiles with which he was encompassed, and that age had 
already begun to relax the firmness of his purposes, and I 
am convinced he is more deeply seated in the love and 
gratitude of the republicans than in the pharisaical hom- 
age of the federal monarchist." 

It is well known that Mr. Jefferson and his partizans,, 
16^ 



186 THE CHARACTER OF 

much as they professed to dislike the general policy and 
the specific measures of general Washington's adminis- 
tration, affected to be much more shocked by the course 
pursued under Mr. Adams's administration. In a letter 
from general Washington to president Adams, dated June 
17, 1798, (Washington's Writings, voL 4, page 241,) he 
says, " I pray you to believe, that no one has read the 
various approbatory addresses which have been presented 
to you with more heart-felt satisfaction than I have done." 

In another letter to president Adams, (in the same work,, 
page 261,) dated July 13, 1798, he says, " It was not pos- 
sible for me to remain ignorant of, or indifferent to, recent 
transactions. The conduct of the directory of France to- 
wards our country, their insidious hostilities to its govern- 
ment, their various practices to withdraw the aflTections of 
the people from it, the evident tendency of their arts and 
those of their agents to countenance and invigorate oppo- 
sition, their disregard of solemn treaties and the laws of 
nations, their war upon our defenceless commerce, their 
treatment of our minister of peace, and their demands 
amounting to tribute, could not fail to excite in me cor- 
responding sentiments with those which my countrymen 
have so generally expressed in their affectionate addresses 
to you. Believe me, sir, no one can more cordially ap- 
prove of the wise and prudent measures of your adminis- 
tration. They ought to inspire universal confidence, and 
will, no doubt, combined with the state of things, call from 
congress such laws and means as will enable you to meet 
the full force and extent of the crisis." 

In order to show that there was not the slightest foun- 
dation in truth for the pretence on the part of Mr. Jef- 
ferson that general Washington was not a federalist, but 
that he was in reality " a republican," according to the 
meaning which he gave to the title, the following, out of 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 187 

a multitude of papers of the same description, in his cor- 
respondence published by Sparks, may be adduced. 

In a letter to John Jay, dated May 8, 1796, (vol 11, 
page 123,) he says, " I am sure the mass of citizens in 
these United States mean well, and I firmly believe they 
will always act u-ell whenever they can obtain a right un- 
derstanding of matters; but in some parts of the Union, 
where the sentiments of their delegates and leaders are 
adverse to the government and great pains are taken to 
inculcate a belief that their rights are assailed and their 
liberties endangered, it is not easy to accomplish this; es- 
pecially as is the case invariably when the inventors and 
abettors of pernicious measures use infinitely more indus- 
try in disseminating the poison than the well-disposed 
part of the community in furnishing the antidote. To this 
source all our discontents may he traced, and from it all 
our embarrassments proceed. Hence serious misfortunes, 
originating in misrepresentation, frequently flow and 
spread before they can be dissipated by truth. 

" These things do as you have supposed, fill my mind 
with concern and with serious anxiety." 

In a letter to Thomas Jofl^erson, dated July 6, 1796, 
(Ibid, 138) he says— 

" If I had entertained any suspicions before, that the 
queries which have been published in Backe's paper pro- 
ceeded from you, the assurance you have given of the 
contrary w^ould have removed them ; but the truth is, I 
harbored none. I am at no loss to conjecture from what 
source they flowed, through what channel they were con- 
veyed, and for what purpose they and similar publications 
appear. They were known to be in the hands of Mr. 
Parker in the earky part of the last session of congress. 
They were shown about by Mr. Giles during the ses- 



188 THE CHARACTER OF 

sion, and they made their public exhibition aboiil the close 
of it. 

" Perceiving and probably hearing, that no abuse in the 
gazettes would induce me to take notice of anonymous 
publications against me, those who were disposed to do me 
such friendly offices, have embraced without restraint every 
opportunity to weaken the confidence of the people ; and 
by having the whole game in their hands, they have 
scrupled not to publish things that do not as well as those 
which do exist, and to mutilate the latter so as to make 
them subserve the purposes which they have in view. 

" As you have mentioned the subject yourself, it would 
not be frank, candid, or friendly to conceal that your con- 
duct has been represented as derogating from that opinion 
T had conceived you entertained of me; that to your par- 
ticular friends and connections you have described, and 
they have denounced me as a person under a dangerous 
influence ; and that, if I would listen more to some other 
opinions, all would be well. My answer invariably has 
been, that I had never discovered anything in the conduct 
of Mr. Jefferson to raise suspicions in my mind of his in- 
sincerity ; that if he would retrace my public conduct 
while he was in the administration, abundant proofs would 
occur to him, that truth and right decisions were the sole 
objects of my pursuit ; that there were as many instances 
within his own knowledge of my having decided agamst as 
in favor of the opinions of the person evidently alluded to : 
and, moreover, that I was no believer in the infallibility of 
the politics or measures of any man living. In short, that 
I was no party man myself, and the first wish of my heart 
was, if parties did exist, to reconcile them. 

" To this I may add, and very truly, that until within 
the last year or two, I had no conception that parties 
would or even could go to the length I have been witness 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 189 

to; nor did I believe until lately, that it was within the 
bounds of probability, hardly within those of possiljility, 
that while I was using my utmost exertions to establish a 
national character of our own, independent, as far as our 
obligations and justice would permit, of every nation of the 
earth, and wished, by steering a steady course, to preserve 
this country from the horrors of a desolating war, I should 
be accused of being the enemy of one nation, and subject 
to the influence of another; and to prove it, that every act 
of my administration would be tortured, and the grossest 
and most insidious misrepresentations of them be made, 
by giving one side only of a subject, and that too in such 
exaggerated and indecent tern»s as could scarcely be ap- 
plied to a Nero, a notorious defaulter, or even to a com- 
mon pick-pocket." 

In a note subjoined to this letter, it is said, " No corres- 
pondence after this date between Washington and JeifTer- 
son appears in the letter books, except a brief note the 
month following, upon an unimportant matter. It has 
been reported and believed, that letters or paper s^ supposed 
to have jjassed between them, or to relate to their inter- 
course icith each other at subsequent dates, were secretly 
withdrawn from the archives of Mount Vernon, after the 
death of the former. Concerning this fact, no positive 
testimony remains, either for or against it, among Wash- 
ington's papers, as they came into my hands." 

In a letter from general Washington to general La- 
fayette, dated December 2-5, 1798, (Ibid, 376,) he says— 
" It has been the policy of France, and that of t}i£ opposi- 
tion party among ourselves, to inculcate a belief that all 
those who have exerted themselves to keep this country 
in peace, did it from an overweening attachment to Great 
Britain. But it is a ^olemn truth, and you may count 
upon it, that it is void of foundation, and propagated for 



190 THE CHARACTER OF 

no other purpose, than to excite popular clamor against 
those whose aim was peace, and whom they wished out of 
their v'ayy 

In a letter to Timothy Pickering, dated August 29, 1797, 
(Ibid, 387,) he says, " That France had stepped far be- 
yond the line of rectitude, cannot be denied; that she has 
been encouraged to do so by a 'party among ourselves is, 
to my mind, equally certain." 

In a letter to Patrick Henry, dated January 15, 1799, 
(Ibid, 387,) he says— 

" It would be a waste of time to attempt to bring to the 
view of a person of your observation and discernment, the 
endeavors o/'fl^ certain party among us to disquiet the public 
mind with unfounded alarms; to arraign every act of the 
administration ; to set the people at variance with their 
government; and to embarrass all its measures. Equally 
useleiss would it be to predict what must be the inevi- 
table consequences of such a policy, if it cannot be ar- 
rested. 

" Unfortuately, and extremely do I regret it, the state of 
Virginia has taken the lead in this opposition. I have 
said the state, because the conduct of its legislature in the 
eyes of the world will authorize the expression, and be- 
cause it is an incontrovertible fact, that the principal lead- 
ers of the opposition dwell in it, and that, with the help of 
the chiefs in other stales, all the plans are arranged, and 
systematically pursued by their followers in other parts of 
the Union ; though in no state except Kentucky, that I 
have heard of, has legislative countenance been obtained 
beyond Virginia." 

" But, at such a crisis as this, when every thing dear 
and valuable to us is assailed; when this party hangs upon 
the wheels of government as a .dead weight, opposing 
every measure that is calculated for defence and self-pre- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 191 

servatlon, abetting the nefarious views of another nation 
upon our rights, preferring, as long as they dare contend 
openly against the spirit and resentment of the people, the 
interest of France to the welfare of their own country, 
justifying the former at the expense of the latter; when 
every act of their own government is tortured by construc- 
tions they will not bear, into attempts to infringe and 
trample upon the constitution with a view to introduce 
monarchy; when the most unceasing and the purest exer- 
tions which were making to maintain a neutrality, pro- 
claimed by the executive, approved unequivocally by con- 
gress, by the state legislatures, nay, by the people them- 
selves in various meetings, and to preserve the country in 
peace, are charged with being measures calculated to favor 
Great Britain at the expense of France, and all those, who 
had any agency in it are accused of being under the influ- 
ence of the former and her pensioners ; when measures 
are systematically and pertinaciously pursued, which must 
eventually dissolve the Union or produce coercion ; I say, 
when these things have become so obvious, ought charac- 
ters who are best able to rescue their country from the 
pending evil to remain at home ? Rather ought they not 
to come forward, and by their talents and influence stand 
in the breach which such conduct has made on the peace 
and happiness of this country, and oppose the widening 
of it? 

" Vain will it be to look for peace and happiness, or for 
the security of liberty or property, if civil discord should 
ensue. And what else can result from the policy of those 
among us, who, by all the measures in their power, are 
driving matters to extremity, if they cannot be counteract- 
ed eflfpctually ? The views of men can only be known, or 
guessed at, by their words or actions. Can those of the 
leaders of opposition be mistaken, then, if judged by this 



192 THE CHARACTER OF 

rule ? That they are followed by numbers who are un- 
acquainted with their designs, and suspect as little the 
tendency of their principles, I am fully persuaded. But, 
if their conduct is viewed with indifference, if there are 
activity and misrepresentation on one side, and supineness 
on the other, their numbers accumulated by intriguing and 
discontented foreigners under proscription, who were at 
war with their own governments, and the greater part of 
them with all governments, they will increase, and nothing 
short of Omniscience can foretell the consequences." 

The following extracts from general Washington's let- 
ters will show how far the allegation that he was not a 
federalist but was one of Mr. Jefferson's republicans, is en- 
titled to credit. 

In the 10th volume of Washington's Writings, (page 
857,) is a letter to Henry Lee, from which the following 
passage is copied — 

" That there are in this, as well as in all other countries, 
discontented characters, I well know ; as also that these 
characters are actuated by very different views ; some 
good, from an opinion that the measures of the general 
government are impure ; some bad, if I might be allowed 
to use so harsh, an expre^'sion, diabolical, inasmuch as they 
are not only meant to impede the measures of that gov- 
ernment generally, but more especially as a great means 
towards the accomplishment of it, to destroy the confidence, 
which it is necessary for the people to place, until they 
have unequivocal proof of demerit, in their public servants. 
In this light I consider myself, whilst I am an occupant of 
office ; and if they were to go further and call me their 
slave during this period, 1 would not dispute the point. 

" But in what will this abuse terminate? For the re- 
sult, as it respects myself, I care not ; for I have a consola- 
tion within, that no earthly efforts can deprive me of, and 



THOMAS JEFFERSON, 193 

that is, that neither ambitious nor interested motives have 
influenced my conduct. The arrows of malevolence, there- 
fore, however barbed and well pointed, never can reach 
the most vulnerable part of me ; though, while I am up as 
a mark, they will be continually aimed. The publications ' 
in Freneau's and Backers papers are outrages on common . 
decency ; and they progress in that style, in proportion as 
their pieces are treated with contempt, and are passed by 
in silence by those at whom they are aimed. The ten- 
dency of them, however, is too obvious to be mistaken by 
men of cool and dispassionate minds, and, in my opinion, 
ought to alarm them ; because it is difficult to prescribe 
bounds to the effect." 

At page 428, of the same volume, is a letter to the same 
gentleman, in which it is said — 

" It is with equal pride and satisfaction I add, that as 
far as my information extends, this insurrection [in Penn- 
sylvania] is viewed with universal indignation and abhor- 
rence, except by those who have never missed an opportuni- 
ty by side blov'S or otherwise to attack the general govern- 
ment ; and even among these there is not a spirit hardy 
enough yet openly to justify the daring infractions of law 
and order ; but by palliatives they are attempting to sus- 
pend all proceedings against the insurgents until congress 
shall have decided on the case, thereby intending to gain 
time, and if possible to make the evil more extensive, 
more formidable, and of course more difficult to counteract 
and subdue. 

" I consider this insurrection as the first formidahle 
fruit of the democratic sode^ze^, brought forth, I believe, too 
prematurely for their own views, which may contribute to 
the annihilation of them. 

" That these societies were instituted by the artful and 
designing members (many of their body I have no doubt 



194 THE CHARACTER OF 

mean well, but know little of the real plan,) primarily to 
sow among the people the seeds of jealousy and distrust 
of the government, by destroying all confidence in the ad- 
ministration of it, and that these doctrines have be^n bud- 
ding and blowing ever since, is not new to any one uho 
is acquainted with the character of their leaders, and has 
been attentive to their mancEuvres. I early gave it as my 
opinion to the confidential characters around me, that if 
these societies were not counteracted, (not by prosecutions, 
the ready way to make them grow stronger,) or did not 
fall into disesteem from the knowledge of their origin, and 
the views with which they had been instituted by their 
father Genet, for purposes well known to the government, 
they would shake the government to its foundation. Time 
and circumstances have confirmed me in this opinion ; and 
I deeply regret the probable consequences ; not as they 
will aflect me personally, for I have not long to act on this 
theatre, and sure I am that not a man amongst them can 
be more anxious to put me aside, than I am to sink into 
the profoundest retirement, but because I see, under a dis- 
play of popular and fascinating guises, the most diabolical 
attempts to destroy the best fabric of human government 
and happiness that has ever been presented for the accept- 
ance of mankind^ 

In a letter to Burgess Ball, at the 437th page of the 
same volume, is the following passage — " I hear with the 
greatest pleasure of the spirit which so generally pervades 
the militia of every state that has been called upon on the 
present occasion ; and of the decided discountenance the 
disturbers of public peace and order have met with in 
their attempts to spread their nefarious doctrines, with a 
view to poison and discontent the minds of the people 
against the government; particularly endeavoring to have 
it believed that their liberties were assailed, and that all 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 195f 

the wicked and abominable measures that can be devised 
under specious guises are practiced to sap the constitution, 
and lay the foundation of future slavery. 

" The insurrection in the western counties of this state 
(Pennsylvania) is a striking evidence of this, and may be 
considered as the first ripe fi-uits of the democratic socie- 
ties. I did not, I must confess, expect it would come to 
maturity so soon, though I never had a doubt that such 
conduct would produce some such issue, if it did not meet 
the frowns of those who were well disposed to order and 
good government ; for can anything be more absurd, more 
arrogant, or more pernicious to the peace of society, than 
for self-created bodies, forming themselves into permanent 
censors, and under the shade of night in a conclave re- 
solving that acts of congress which have undergone the 
most deliberate and solemn discussion by the representa- 
tives of the people, chosen for the express purpose, and 
bringing with them from the different parts of the Union 
the sense of their constituents, endeavoring as far as the 
nature of the thing will admit, to form their will into laws 
for the government of the whole ; I say, under these cir- 
cumstances, for a self-created permanent body (for no one 
denies the right of the people to meet occasionally to peti- 
tion for or remonstrate against any act of the legislature) 
to declare that this act is unconstitutional, and that act is 
pregnant with mischiefs, and that all who vote contrary to 
their dogmas are actuated by selfish motives or under 
foreign influence, nay, are traitors to their country ? Is 
such a stretch of arrogant presumption to be reconciled 
with laudable motives, especially when we see the same 
set of men endeavoring to destroy all confidence in the ad- 
ministration by arraigning all its acts, without knowing 
on what ground or with what information it proceeds?" 

In a letter to John Nicholas, dated March 8, 1798, he 



196 THE CHARACTER OF 

says, " But as the attempts to explain away the constitu- 
tion and weaken the government are now become so open, 
and the desire of placing the affairs of this country under 
the influence and control of a foreign nation is so* appa- 
rent and strong, it is hardly to be expected that a resort to 
covert means to effect these objects will be longer re- 
garded." 

The following is an extract of a letter to John Jay, 
(Washington's Writings, volume 10, page 452.) 

"That the self-created societies, which have spread 
themselves over this country, have been laboring inces- 
santly to sow the seeds of distrust, jealousy, and of course 
discontent, thereby hoping to effect some revolution in 
the government, is not unknown to you. That they have 
been the fomenters of the western disturbances admits of 
no doubt in the mind of any one who will examine their 
conduct; but fortunately they precipitated a crisis for 
which they were not prepared, and thereby have unfolded 
views which will, I trust, effectuate their annihilation 
sooner than it might otherwise have happened; at the 
same time that it has afforded an occasion for the people 
of this country to show their abhorrence of the result, and 
their attachment to the constitution and the laws ; for I 
believe that five times the number of militia that was re- 
quired would have come forward, if it had been necessary, 
in support of them." 

These extracts from general Washington's private cor- 
respondence, without reference to his public acts whilst 
president of the United States, will satisfy any reasonable 
and upright mind, that there was not the slightest ground 
for the pretence on the part of Mr. Jefferson, that he was 
not a federalist, in principle as well as in conduct ; and 
still less for the assertion, that he was what the latter 
called a republican — that is, a member of his own am- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 197 

bilious, aspiring party. No person can doubt for a moment 
to whom general Washijigton alludes, when he speaks of 
the opposition — the leaders of that party — or the language 
of his letter to Patrick Henry, who was originally opposed 
to many things in the constitution, but more opposed to 
the principles of the democratic, or republican party, when 
he expresses his regret that the state of Virginia had ta- 
ken the lead in that opposition ; and justifies the charge 
by saying that the principal leaders of that opposition dvjell 
in Virginia — when he says this party " hangs upon the 
wheels of government as a dead weight, opposing every 
measure that is calculated for defence and self-preserva- 
tion, abetting the nefarious views of another nation upon 
our rights, preferring, as long as they dare contend openly 
against the spirit and resentment of the people, the inter- 
est of France to the welfare of their own country." He 
meant the democratic party, called by Mr. Jefferson the 
republican party, of which he was the founder and the ac- 
knowledged head, and over which he maintained the most 
controlling influence and the most absolute sway. 

But to put the question of general Washington's feder- 
alism beyond the reach of doubt or cavil, and of course to 
fix upon all Mr. Jefferson's declarations and suggestions 
on that subject the mark of falsehood, the following extract 
from a letter to judge Washington, dated May 5, 1799, 
is adduced : — 

" Your letter of the 26th ultimo, as also that of the 10th, 
has been duly received. The election of generals Lee 
and Marshall are grateful to my feelings. I wish, how- 
ever, both of them had been elected by greater majorities ; 
but they are elected, and that alone is pleasing. 

" As the tide is turned, I hope it will come in with a full 
flow ; but this will not happen if there is any relaxation 
on the part of the federalists. We are sure there will be 
17* 



198 THE CHARACTER OF 

none on the part of the republicans, as they have very er- 
ro7ieously called themselves^ 

It would have been difficult for Mr. Jefferson, vi'ith all 
his ingenuity in evading the force of truth, and his extra- 
ordinary skill in presenting any favorite topic to the public 
mind under false coloring, and in supporting it by falla- 
cious reasoning, to pervert the meaning of this plain and 
explicit language. He might, and probably he would have 
resorted to the explanation that general Washington's 
powers of mind, which he had some years before alleged 
had given way, had at the date of this letter entirely fail- 
ed; and that he must have been unconscious not only of 
what he said, but of what he thought. This letter is dated 
more than two years after he had retired from the admin- 
istration of the government; and, of course, he had, dur- 
ing that period, been out of the way of the corrupting in- 
fluence of federal advisers and councilors, and in a situa- 
tion to act according to the dictates of his own unbiassed 
understanding and judgment. As it was impossible for 
him to mistake his own sentiments on a subject which 
had occupied his thoughts and governed his conduct for 
the eight years during which he had been at the head of 
the government, and as his administration had been uni- 
formly regulated by federal principles, the attempt to re- 
present him as having been, at heart, a Jefferson ian repub- 
lican, was a calumny upon his pure and exalted character. 

It will be borne in mind, that Mr. Jefferson's letter to 
Walter Jones, which has been quoted, is dated in 1814, 
and that-to Martin Van Buren, June 29, 1824 — the last two 
years before his death, and twenty-five years after the 
death of general Washington. His object in writing the 
letter at such a late period of his life, was doubtless what he 
says at the close of it had been his practice in other cases ; 
viz., to leave it in the hands of a friend and to " throw 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 199 

light on history, and recall that into the path of truth." 
Fortunately for general Washington's reputation, he left 
behind him abundant materials for the light of history, 
which will destroy every attempt of Mr. Jefferson, how- 
ever secretly and artfully made, to misrepresent his prin- 
ciples, or defame his understanding or character. 



200 THE CHARACTER OF 



CHAPTER XI. 

Mr. Jefferson's last parting with general Washington at Mr. 
Adams's inauguration, March, 1797 — "Washington's faculties 
impaired — He had become alienated from Jefferson — general 
Washington's powers of mind never stronger than at the period 
alluded to — The origin, character, and object of Jefferson's Ana 
— Persons employed in collecting materials for the work — Story 
of Sir I. Temple, Hamilton, King and Smith — Story of governor 
Clinton and a militia general — Conversation between Langdon 
and Cabot, reported by Lear — Story from Baldwin and Skinner 
— Jefferson's account of the convention of 1787 — Account not 
entitled to credit — The constitution made by federalists — Op- 
posed by Jefferson's republicans — The account of both conven- 
tions untrue — Not a delegate from the eastern states at Annapo- 
lis — Assumption state debts part of a system of corruption — 
Scheme Hamilton's, Washington ignorant of the plan — Hamil- 
ton a monarchist — Conversation at Jefferson's dinner table — 
Conversation in August, 1791, between Jefferson and Hamilton 
about the constitution — Hamilton's opinion of it — Practice of 
noting down private conversations insidious — Such evidence un- 
worthy of credit — Conversation between Jefferson and Wash- 
ington, October, 1792 — Jefferson informed Washington that 
Hamilton was a monarchist — Character of Hamilton by judge 
Marshall — Washington's letter, accepting Hamilton's resigna- 
tion. 

It will be recollected, that in his letter to Martin Van 
Buren, a large extract from which has been quoted above, 
Mr. Jefferson says, " My last parting with general Wash- 
ington was at the inauguration of Mr. Adams, in March, 
1797, and was warmly affectionate ; and I never had any 
reason to believe any change on his part, as there was cer- 
tainly none on mine." 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 20l 

One of the most remarkable circumstances in the char- 
acter of Mr. Jefferson is, that in the course of his history, 
sentiments of the most contradictory description will be 
found on almost all subjects. 

In the introductory remarks to his "j4?2a," which bear 
date February 5, 1818, he says, " From the moment of 
m^ retiring from the administration, the federalists got un- 
checked hold of general Washington. His memory was 
already sensibly impaired by age, the firm tone of mind 
for which he had been remarkable, was beginning to relax, 
its energy was abated, a listlessness of labor, a desire for 
tranquility had crept on him, and a willingness to let 
others act, and even think for him. Like the rest of man- 
kind, he was disgusted with atrocities of the French revo- 
lution, and was not sufficiently aware of the difference be- 
tween the rabble who were used as instruments of their 
perpetration, and the steady and rational character of the 
American people, in which he had not sufficient confi- 
dence. The opposition too of the republicans to.the Brit- 
ish treaty, and the zealous support of the federalists in 
that unpopular but favorite measure of theirs, had made 
him all their own. Understanding, moreover, that I dis- 
approved of that treaty, and copiously nourished with 
falsehoods by a malignant neighbor of mine, who ambi- 
tioned to be his correspondent, he had hecorae alienated 
from myself 'personally^ as from the republican body gener- 
ally of his fellow citizens ; and he wrote the letters to Mr. 
Adams and Mr. Carroll, over which, in devotion to his im- 
perishable fame, we must forever weep as monuments of 
mortal decay." 

It would be degrading to general Washington's reputa- 
tion, to say a word in attempting to vindicate it against 
this charge of mental decay and intellectual imbecility. 
His correspondence, between the period here alluded to, 



202 THE CHARACTER OF 

and the time of his death, is before the world, in which the 
search after proof of the assertion made by Mr. Jefferson 
on that subject will be vain. The extraordinary powers 
of his mind were never more strikingly displayed than 
during the period alluded to. But the passage above 
quoted contains a direct and positive contradiction of the 
declaration in the letter to Martin Van Buren, that he 
never had any reason to believe there was any change in 
general Washington's friendly feelings towards him ; for 
here he expressly says he had become alienated from him, 
as well as fro7n the republican body generally. It has 
been shown from general Washington's own declarations, 
multiplied to a great number, that he viewed the party 
which Mr. Jefferson called republican, in the same light in 
which they were viewed by the federalists generally ; and 
by his own declaration, that he had lost his confidence in 
the head of that party, Mr. Jefferson himself; or, in his 
own language, had become alienated from him. 

Reference has been frequently made, in the course of 
this work, to that portion of Mr. Jefferson's posthumous 
volumes which is called "J-wa." It is obviously a collec- 
tion of materials for history, and was intended to establish 
his own reputation in future ages as a statesman and poli- 
tician, and particularly as the great republican friend and 
benefactor of his country, who, by his persevering and dis- 
interested zeal and patriotic devotion to its highest inter- 
ests, preserved its republican constitution and prevented 
the introduction of a monarchical government in its stead. 
This collection he made the depository of a large portion 
of his slanders upon the federalists as a body, and particu- 
larly upon Alexander Hamilton, as one of the most able 
and distinguished individuals in their number. It will be 
observed, that all the entries in the *'Ana " were made by 
himself; but the materials of which they are composed, 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 203 

are said to have been derived from many different sources. 
A man like him, when possessed of the means of paying 
for such services, will always have persons enough about 
him of a suitable character and a proper disposition to 
perform the services which his pursuits and objects might 
require; and it appears that he was abundantly furnished 
with agents of this description. 

One of the persons who appears to have been thus em- 
ployed by him in this degrading service, was John Beck- 
ley, who for a number of years was clerk of the house of 
representatives of the United States. That he was well 
fitted for the business, is manifest from the fruits of his 
labors, as they were from time to time reported to his prin- 
cipal. In the 4S5th page of the 4th volume of Jefferson's 
Works, is the following statement : — 

"June the 7th, 1793. Mr. Beckley, who has returned 
from New-York within a few days, tells me that while he 
was there, sir John Temple, consul-general of the northern 
states for Great Britain, showed him a letter from sir 
Gregory Page Turner, a member of parliament for a 
borough in Yorkshire, who, he said, had been a member 
for twenty-five years, and always confidential for the min- 
isters, in which he permitted him to read particular passa- 
ges of the following purport : ' that the government was 
well apprized of the predominancy of the British interest in 
the United States ; that they considered colonel Hamilton, 
Mr. King, and Mr. W. Smith of South Carolina, as the 
main supports of that interest ; ihat particularly they con- 
sidered colonel Hamilton, and not Mr. Hammond, as their 
effective minister here ; that if the anti-federal interest, 
(that was his term) at the head of which they considered 
Mr. Jefferson to be, should prevail, these gentlemen had 
secured an asylum to themselves in England.' Beckley 
could not understand whether they had secured it Mcttz- 



204 THE CHARACTER OF 

selves^ or whether they were only notified that it was se- 
cured to them. So that they understand that they may 
go on boldly in their machinations to change the govern- 
ment, and if they should be overset, and choose to with- 
draw, they will be secure of a pension in England, as 
Arnold, Deane, &c. had. Sir John read passages of a 
letter (which he did not put into Beckley's hand, as he did 
the other) from lord Grenville, saying nearly the same 
things." 

This ridiculous story was too absurd even for Mr. Jeffer- 
son to swallow entire, for it is said in a note at the word 
themselves, that it was wTitten in the margin (of the man- 
uscript it is presumed) that it was ^^ Impossible as to Ham- 
ilton; he ivasfar above that ; " — leaving it to be consider- 
ed as a matter of fact, as far as his opinion went, that the 
charge against the other persons named, one of whom cer- 
tainly was, and it is believed the other was, as little liable 
to such an imputation as was general Hamilton, was true. 
And yet, Mr. JefTerson left this entry on his "J./ia," and 
placed it among his archives, for publication after his 
death. 

Under the same date with the foregoing is the follow- 
ing — " Beckley tells me that he has the following fact from 
governor Clinton. That before the proposition for the 
present general government, i. e. a little before Hamilton 
conceived a plan for est2.blishing a monarchical govern- 
ment in the United Stales, he wrote a draft of a circular 

letter, which was sent to about persons, to bring it 

about. One of these letters, in Hamilton's hand-writing, 
is now in possession of an old militia general up the North 
river, who at that time was thought orthodox enough to be 
entrusted in the execution. This general has given notice 
to gavernor Clinton, that he has this paper, and that he 
will deliver it into his hands, and no one's else. Clinton 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 205 

intends, the first interval of leisure, to go for it, and he will 
bring it to Philadelphia. Beckley is a man of perfect 
truth, as to what he affirms of his own knowledge, but too 
credulous as to what he hears from other s.^^ 

As this is all that ever was heard from this very impor- 
tant document, and as it came to Beckley's knowledge by 
hearsay only, it is reasonable to conclude, that he was un- 
der the influence of too great credulity when he reported 
it to Mr. Jefferson — for there is no room to doubt that the 
whole is a fabrication. 

There is in this extraordinary collection of gossiping scan- 
dal, a still further article from this same Mr. Beckley: — ■ 

" December the 1st, 1793 "' — just before Mr. Jeffer- 
son resigned the office of secretary of state — " Beckley 
tells me he had the following fact from Lear. Langdon, 
Cabot, and some others of the senate, standing in a knot 
before the fire after the senate had adjourned, and growl- 
ing together about some measure which they had just lost ; 
' Ah ! ' said Cabot, ' things will never go right until you 
have a president for life, and an hereditary senate. Lang- 
don told this to Lear, who seemed struck with it, and 
declared he had not supposed there was a man in the 
United States who could have entertained such an idea." 

There are strong reasons for believing that this, as well 
as many other tales recorded in these " J.?ia," is a sheer 
fabrication. Men whose occupation is tale-bearing, are 
very rarely worthy of credit. Mr. Jefferson himself, as 
has been seen, declares Beckley to have been too credu- 
lous as to what he hears from others ; and his associate in 
this transaction has been considered by many persons as 
worse than credulous. Mr. Cabot was thoroughly ac- 
quainted with the human character, and as little likely to 
expose himself to the enmity of those around him as any 
man who ever lived. Mr. Langdon and he were diamet- 
18 



206 THE CHARACTER OF 

ricall}^ opposed in politics — Mr. Cabot being a federalist, 
and Mr. Langdon a thorough Jeffersonian democrat. It is 
not to be believed, certainly without more creditable testi- 
mony than that of either Beckley or Lear, that he would 
place himself in the power of those who he must have 
known would watch every word he uttered, and if, in an un- 
guarded moment, he should so far forget himself as to make 
use of a single expression that could be made a handle of to 
prejudice him in the minds of his countrymen, the oppor- 
tunity would not be lost or neglected. And when we find 
in Mr. Jefferson's " memorandums," charges of a similar 
character with this against almost every distinguished fed- 
eralist, it is difficult, if not impossible, to resist the conclu- 
sion, that the whole have been made up to answer the pur- 
pose he had in view. Tliat purpose, if an opinion is to 
be formed from the nature of the materials which are con- 
tained in his works, and a regard is had to the time when 
they were professedly scraped together, was undoubtedly 
to subserve his personal ambition. If they were kept 
concealed in his own bureau until the time of his death, 
and never brought into light, then his object was, according 
to his own declaration, to correct the only historical work of 
the period, viz., the life of Washington by judge Marshall. 

But after reading the following extract from the " J[?z<z," 
Mr. Jefferson's claim to credit as a witness, will be more 
easily estimated — 

" January the 5th, 179S. I receive a very remarkable 
fact indeed, in our history, from Baldwin and Skinner. 
Before the establishment of our present government, a 
very extensive combination had taken place in New York 
and the eastern stales, among that description of people 
who were partly monarchical in principle, or frightened 
with Shays's rebellion and the impotence of the old con- 
gress. Delegates in different places had actually had con- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 207 

sultations on the subject of seizing on the powers of a gov- 
ernment, and establishing them by force ; had correspond- 
ed with one another, and had sent a deputy to general 
Washington to solicit his co-operation. He refused to 
join them. The new convention was in the mean time 
proposed by Virginia and appointed. These people be- 
lieved it impossible the states should ever agree on a gov- 
ernment, as this must include the impost and all the 
other powers which the states had, a thousand times, re- 
fused to the general authority. They therefore let the 
proposed convention go on, not doubting its failure, and 
confiding that on its failure would be a still more favora- 
ble moment for their enterprize. They therefore wished 
it to fail, and especially when Hamilton, their leader, 
brought forward his plan of government, failed entirely in 
carrying it, and retired in disgust from the convention. 
His associates then took every method to prevent any form 
of government being agreed to. But the well intentioned 
never ceased trying, first one thing, and then another, until 
they could get something agreed to. The final passage and 
adoption of the constitution completely defeated the views 
of the combination, and saved us from an attempt to estab- 
lish a government over us by force. This fact throws a 
blaze of light on the conduct of several members from New 
York and the eastern states in the convention of Annapo- 
lis, and the grand convention. At that of Annapolis, sev- 
eral eastern members most vehemently opposed Madison's 
proposition for a more general convention, with more gen- 
eral powers. They wished things to get more and more 
into confusion, to justify the violent measure they pro- 
posed. The idea of establishing a government by reason 
and agreement, they publicly ridiculed as an Utopian pro- 
ject, visionary and unexampled." 

It is very much doubted whether any intelligent com- 



208 THE CHARACTER OF 

munity were ever called upon to believe a more incredible, 
or a more extravagant story than this. It is presumed 
that the Mr. Baldwin here mentioned was Abraham Bald- 
win, for many years a senator in congress from the State of 
Georgia. This gentleman was a native of Connecticut, 
but removed to Georgia soon after the peace of 1783, and 
was a member of the convention which formed the consti- 
tution of the United Slates, and one of those who signed 
it. Mr. Skinner, was probably Thompson J. Skinner, for 
a while member of congress from the state of Massachu- 
setts. Both of them were warm democrats in politics, and 
the devoted friends of Mr. Jefferson. Whether any part 
of this story, and if so, how much of it, came from them 
to Mr. Jefferson, probably can never be known, as they 
have both for a long time been dead. But that two such 
individuals, living at such a remote distance from each 
other, should have become so intimately acquainted with 
the political plans and movements of those from whom 
they totally differed in principles and in measures, is, to 
say the least, very extraordinary. But not more extraor- 
dinary than the story itself. Here it is stated, that an ex- 
tensive combination had been formed of those who after- 
wards appeared as federalists, under general Hamilton as 
their leader, for a purpose treasonable against the people 
of the United States — for government they had none — to 
seize on the powers of a government by force, and that 
they had the assurance to request general Washington to 
join them in their absurd, as well as treasonable and despe- 
rate enterprise ; which he, however, refused. That when 
the convention of 1787 was called, they were so confident 
that no plan of a government would be agreed upon, that 
" they let the proposed convention go on,'" not doubt- 
ing its failure, and thinking that after its failure, they 
would have a favorable opportunity to carry their project 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 209 

into effect ; which was to establish a government by force ; 
that those who had good intentions in the convention, un- 
doubtedly aware of the designs of these persons, tried one 
thing after another, until the constitution was approved by 
the convention ; which defeated the combination, and saved 
the country from an attempt to establish over it a govern- 
ment by force. Some important facts, which Mr. Jefferson, 
in his eager anxiety to render the federalists odious, seems 
to have lost sight of, should be recalled to mind. 

A great majority of the men who made the constitution, 
were federalists. The men who opposed it in all its stages 
in the convention, and who eventually withheld their sig- 
natures from it, and those who afterwards opposed its 
adoption in the conventions of the states, were persons 
who were afterwards called republicans of Mr. Jefferson's 
school and party. Among them, in the convention, were 
James Monroe, of Virginia, afterwards president of the 
United States, Elbridge Gerry, of Massachusetts, after- 
wards vice president of the United States, Robert Yates 
and John Lansing, jun., of the state of New York. These 
were all Jeffersonian republicans ; and in their several states, 
exerted themselves to the utmost of their abilities, to pre- 
vent the adoption of the constitution. But Alexander 
Hamilton, who Mr. Jefferson so often declares was a mon- 
archist of the most dangerous description, and Rufus King, 
two of the three individuals who are said, in sir John 
Temple's letter from sir Gregory Page Turner, to have se- 
cured themselves an asylum in England, in the event of 
the anti-federal interest prevailing, actually signed the con- 
stitution, and in the conventions in their respective states, 
were among the most active and influential members in; 
procuring its adoption. These men, and their federal 
friends, are those who are here described as having, under 
the belief that no constitution could be agreed upon, "^t 
18=^ 



210 THE CHARACTER OF 

the convention go 071^' flattering themselves that their pro- 
ceedings would terminate in nothing, that the country- 
would be plunged into a state of anarchy, and that out of 
it they should secure their favorite object, viz., a monarchy. 

But it proved, notwithstanding the sanguineness of their 
expectations and calculations, that these desperate and de- 
termined monarchists, by persevering exertions, by coni- 
^promises and concessions, by demanding little and yield- 
ing much, did, at length, in spite of Mr. Jefferson's friends, 
frame a constitution which was agreed to by a large ma- 
jority of the convention, and afterwards adopted by the 
people, comprising nearly every federal member who was 
present. And this is what he calls saving us from an at- 
tempt to establish over us a government by force. The 
man who can believe, at this late period, Mr. Jefferson's 
history of the matter, is in no danger of being stigmatized 
as a political infidel. 

There is some part of this account, however, which 
shows in the clearest manner, how little entitled to credit 
Mr. Jefferson's testimony is, especially in a case where his 
passions and his interest operated in biasing his mind and 
his feelings. Alluding to the fact of the convention hav- 
ing agreed to the constitution, and of its effects upon the 
country, in saving us from the establishment over it of a 
government by force, he says — " This fact throws al^laze 
of light on the conduct of several members from New 
York and the eastern states in the convention of Annapolis, 
and the grand convention. At that of Annapolis, several 
eastern members most vehemently opposed Madison's prop- 
osition for a more general convention, with more general 
powers. They wished to get things m.ore and more into 
confusion, to justify the violent measure they proposed." 

This statement is made in so circumstantial a manner, 
that it is apparent that Mr. Jefferson intended the world 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 211 

should have no doubt that he believed it to be true. As 
the knowledge of the things alleged as having taken place 
at both conventions, and particularly that of Annapo- 
lis, if they ever occurred, must have been known to his 
most intimate and confidential friend Mr. Madison, who 
was a member of both, it would naturally be concluded 
that the information was derived from him. Mr. Madison, 
upon finding that the proposed convention at Annapolis 
had failed, for the want of delegations from a majority of 
the states, is said to have made the proposition for another 
convention ; of course he must have been well acquainted 
with everything that occurred in the meeting at Annapolis. 
The means of ascertaining what took place on that occa- 
sion were therefore at Mr. Jefferson's command, who 
might have inquired of his friend almost any day after his 
return from his foreign mission. Now, it is peculiarly un- 
fortunate for him, that he should sacrifice his character for 
veracity in such a case as this, where the history of the 
country would convict him of deliberately recording a 
falsehood, in his own private register of events, for the use 
of the future historian of the times ; especially, as one ob- 
ject which he professes to have had in view was, to pro- 
vide materials for the correction of judge Marshall's Life 
of Washington. 

The fact is, and was perfectly known at the time to the 
country at large, and it is not to be supposed that Mr. Jef- 
ferson could have been ignorant of what was so notorious, 
that there was not a single delegate from any of the east- 
ern states, that is the New England states, at the Annapo- 
lis convention. Of course, the whole story about the 
members from the eastern states, being opposed to Madi- 
son's proposition for a second convention, and in favor of 
a monarchical system, is untrue ; and was undoubtedly 
fabricated for the purpose of casting upon them the re- 



212 THE CHARACTER OF 

proach of having wished to introduce a monarchical gov-' 
ernment into the United States. No man whatever his 
station in life or his character might previously have been, 
who should deliberately testify before a court and jury, to 
such an unfounded story as this, would be entitled to the 
least degree of credit. 

After giving an account in his 'M?i(z" of the adoption 
of the measure for assuming the state debts, and consid- 
ering it as an important part of the grand system of cor- 
ruption devised by general Hamilton for that great object, 
Mr. Jefferson says, — 

" I know well, and so must be understood, that nothing 
like a majority in congress bad yielded to this corruption. 
Far from it. But a division, not very unequal, had al- 
ready taken place in the honest part of that body between 
the parties styled republican and federal. The latter, 
being monarchists in principle, adhered to Hamilton, of 
course, as their leader in that principle ; and this merce- 
nary phalanx added to them insured him always a ma- 
jority in both houses, so that the whole action of the legis- 
lature was now under the direction of the treasury. Still 
the machine was not complete. The effect of the funding 
system and of the assumption would be temporary; it 
would be lost with the loss of the individual members 
whom it had enriched, and some engine of influence more 
permanent must be contrived while these myrmidons were 
yet in place to carry it through all opposition. This en- 
gine was the bank of the United States. All that history 
is known, so I shall say nothing about it. While the 
government remained at Philadelphia a selection of mem- 
bers of both houses were constantly kept as directors who, 
on every question interesting to that institution or to the 
views of the federal head, voted at the will of that head; 
and, together with the stockholding members, could al- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 213 

ways make the federal vote that of the majority. By this 
combination legislative expositions were given to the con- 
stitution, and all the administrative laws were shaped on 
the model of England, and so passed. And from this in- 
fluence we were not relieved until the removal from the 
precincts of the bank to Washington. 

" Here, then, was the real ground of the opposition 
which was made to the course of administration. Its ob- 
ject was to preserve the legislature pure and independent 
of the executive, to restrain the administration to republi- 
can forms and principles, and not permit the constitution 
to be construed into a monarchy and to be warped in 
practice into all the principles and pollutions of their fa- 
vorite English model." 

Mr. Jefferson acquits general Washington of having 
such propensities. He says, " He was true to the repub- 
lican charge confided to him." But he adds, " he was 
not aware of the drift or of the effect of Hamilton's 
schemes. Unversed in financial projects and calculations 
and budgets, his approbation of them was bottomed on his 
confidence in the man." 

At the moment when Mr. Jefferson is representing 
general Washington as placing this confidence in general 
Hamilton, he says that general Washington was acquaint- 
ed with his (Mr. Jefferson's) suspicions of Hamilton's de- 
signs. Now, as general Washington had been far more 
thoroughly acquainted, both in war and peace, with gene- 
ral Hamilton than Mr. Jefferson could have been, the cir- 
cumstance that those suspicions had no effect in destroying 
general Washington's confidence in him, was the strong- 
est evidence in favor of the talents and integrity of gene- 
ral Hamilton, and might have been viewed and felt by 
Mr. Jefferson as a severe reproof for his unfounded and 
injurious estimate of general Hamilton's character. 



214 THE CHARACTER OF 

But Mr. Jefferson, not discouraged or disheartened in 
the prosecution of his plan, proceeds to charge general 
Hamilton, in a more direct and peremptory manner, with. 
entertaining monarchical sentiments, and those ,of the 
worst and most disreputable kind. The following is an 
extract from vol. 4, p. 450 of his works ( "J.?i«.") 

" But Hamilton was not only a monarchist but for a 
monarchy bottomed on corruption. In proof of this I will 
relate an anecdote, for the truth of which I attest the God 
who made me. Before the president set out on his south- 
ern tour in April, 1791, he addressed a letter of the fourth 
of that month from Mount Vernon to the secretaries of 
state, treasury and war, desiring that if any serious and 
important cases should arise during his absence, they 
would consult and act on them. And he requested that 
the vice-president should also be consulted. This was 
the only occasion on which that officer was ever requested 
to take a part in a cabinet question. Some occasion for 
consultation arising, I invited those gentlemen (and the 
attorney-general as well as I remember) to dine with me, 
in order to confer on the subject. After the cloth was re- 
moved and our question agreed and dismissed, conversa- 
tion began on other matters, and by some circumstance 
was led to the British constitution, on which Mr. Adams 
observed, * Purge that constitution of its corruption, and 
give to its popular branch equality of representation, and 
it would be the most perfect constitution ever devised by 
the wit of man.' Hamilton paused and said, ' Purge it 
of its corruption, and give to its popular branch equality 
of representation, and it would become an impracticable 
government; as it stands at present, with all its supposed 
defects, it is the most perfect government which ever 
existed.' And this was assuredly the exact line which 
separated the political creeds of these two gentlemen. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 215 

The one was for two hereditary branches and an honest 
elective one, the other for an hereditary king with a house 
of lords and commons corrupted to his will, and standing 
between him and the people. Hamilton was, indeed, a 
singular character. Of acute understanding, disinterest- 
ed, honest and honorable in all private transactions, amia- 
ble in society and duly valuing virtue in private life, yet 
so bewitched and perverted by the British example as to 
be under thorough conviction that corruption was essen- 
tial to the government of a nation. Mr. Adams had origi- 
nally been a republican. The glare of royalty and no- 
bility during his mission to England had made him be- 
lieve their fascination a necessary ingredient in govern- 
ment; and Shays's rebellion, not sufficiently understood 
where he then was, seemed to prove that the absence of 
want and oppression was not a sufficient guaranty of or- 
der. His book on the American constitution having made 
known his political bias he was taken up by the monarch- 
ical federalists in his absence, and on his return to the 
United States he was by them made to believe that the 
general dispositions of our citizens was favorable to mon- 
archy." 

This story is told in a manner rather more concise in a 
letter from Mr. Jefferson to Dr. Benjamin Eush, dated 
January 16, 1811, and published in the 4ih volume of his 
works, page 154. 

It is a remarkable fact that the only account of this ex- 
traordinary conversation is derived from Mr. Jefferson. 
There were, by his statement, present on this memorable 
occasion vice-president Adams, Mr. Jefferson, secretary of 
state, general Hamilton, secretary of the treasury, general 
Knox, secretary of war, and Edmund Randolph, attorney 
general. It is scarcely possible, if such sentiments were 
uttered by two such high and distinguished officers of the 



216 THE CHARACTER OF 

government, in the presence of so many others, that the 
fact should not, in some form or other, have been disclosed 
to the public. Mr. Jefferson, at whose table it was uttered, 
by his own account does not appear to have been back- 
ward in expressing his opinions and sentiments respecting 
general Hamilton. And yet, in this memorable instance, 
where the opportunity was a peculiarly favorable one for 
the objects he obviously had in view in vilifying general 
Hamilton as one of the most distinguished individuals 
among the federalists, and especially as one of general 
Washington's cabinet, if any reliance may be placed upon 
his dates, he first communicated an account of this conver- 
sation to a private correspondent more than six years 
after general Hamilton's death, and recorded it in his 
"^?za" nearly fourteen years after that event. These 
things could not have been done at the time when, if they 
ever occurred, they were done, with any expectation of 
saving the country from the evils of general Hamilton's 
monarchical propensities or plots, as he had left the gov- 
ernment ten years before his death, and had been in his 
grave twenty-four years before the date of Mr. Jefferson's 
''Ana.'' They must have been made from mere hatred 
of general Hamilton's name and reputation, or, what is 
perhaps equally probable, to take off the force of judge 
Marshall's testimony in favor of general Hamilton's great 
talents and services in his Life of Washington. 

Mr. Jefferson was not satisfied to leave the matter as it 
stood in his letter to Dr. Rush, and in the introduction to 
his ''Ana." By pursuing the course of that article, the 
following passage will be found — 

" Auofust the 13th, 1791. Notes of conversation be- 
tween Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson. Thom- 
as Jefferson mentioned to him a letter received from John 
Adams, disavowing Publicola, and denying that he ever 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 217 

-entertained a wish to bring this country under an heredi- 
tary executive, or introduce an hereditary branch of legis- 
lature, &c. (See his letter.) Alexander Hamilton, con- 
demning Mr. Adams's writings, and most particularly 
Davila, as having a tendency to weaken the present gov- 
ernment, declared in substance as follows : ' I own it is 
my own opinion, though I do not publish it in Dan or 
Beersheba, that the present government is not that which 
will answer the ends of society by giving stability and pro- 
tection to its rights, and that it will probably be found ex- 
pedient to go into the British form. However, since we 
have undertaken the experiment, I am for giving it a fair 
course, whatever my expectations may be. The success, 
indeed, so far, is greater than I had expected, and there- 
fore, at present, success seems more possible than it had 
done heretofore, and there are still other and other stages 
of improvement, which, if the present does not succeed, 
may be tried, and ought to be tried, before we give up the 
republican form altogether ; for that mind must be really 
depraved, which could not prefer the equality of politica:! 
rights, which is the foundation of pure republicanism, if it 
can be obtained consistently with order. Therefore, who- 
ever by his writings disturbs the present order of things, 
is really blameable, however pure his intentions may be, 
and he was sure Mr. Adams's were pure.' This is the 
substance of a declaration made in much more lengthy 
terms, and which seemed to be more formal than usual for 
a private conversation between two, and as if intended to 
qualify some less guarded expressions which had beeft 
dropped on former occasions, Thomas Jefferson has com- 
mitted it to writing in the moment of Alexander Hamil- 
ton's leaving the room.'* 

No frank, open-hearted, sincere man, ever made a prac- 
tice of noting down private conversations between himself 
19 



218 THE CHARACTER OF 

and those with whom he was accustomed to associate, 
either for the purposes of business or the intercourse of 
friendship. Whoever does it, must be actuated by some 
secret, sinister, and insidious design of using it at some 
future time, either for his own benefit or the injury of his 
companion. This is a striking instance to prove the jus- 
tice of these remarks. This conversation is alleged to 
have taken place in 1791, and was kept on hand until both 
the parties were dead, and never promulgated until nearly 
thirty years after it occurred, when it was left to be pub- 
lished with the other posthumous works of the author. 
The testimony of such a witness, under such circumstances, 
is entirely unworthy of credit, under whatever form it ap- 
pears, and before whatever tribunal it is adduced. 

But admitting that it is entitled to any consideration, 
what, upon the face of it, is its import ? Nothing more 
than this — that within the two first years of the existence 
of the new government, before any fair experiment had 
been tried of its efficacy, and when the party of which Mr. 
Jefferson was the secret but actual leader, were exerting 
themselves in every possible way to obstruct, embarrass, 
and defeat the measures of the administration, the man 
who, of all others, had exerted, and was exerting his great 
talents to carry it on prosperously, was doubtful of the is- 
sue, and expressed his fears for the result. At the same 
time, aware that if the experiment failed and the govern- 
ment should fall before its opposers, the next experiment 
would necessarily be of a more energetic system, — that 
before the present government was abandoned, every effort 
should be made to carry it into effect, and those would be 
to blame (probably general Hamilton, if he said anything 
about it, made use of a much stronger expression,) who 
should disturb the existing order of things. 

Under the date of October 1, 1792, after giving an ac- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 219 

count of a conversation with general Washington, relating 
to his (Mr. Jefferson's) determination to leave his office, 
which led to the subject of general Washington's declin- 
ing a second election ; among other arguments urged to 
dissuade Mr. Jefferson from resigning, he states that the 
president said — " That he thought it important to preserve 
the check of my opinions in the administration, in order 
to keep things in their proper channel, and prevent them 
from going too far. That as to the idea of transforming this 
government into a monarchy, he did not believe there were 
ten men in the United States whose opinions were worth 
attention, who entertained such a thought. I told him 
there were many more than he imagined. I recalled to 
his memory a dispute at his own table, a little before we 
left Philadelphia, between general Schuyler on one side 
and Pinckney and myself on the other, wherein the former 
maintained the position that hereditary descent was as 
likely to produce good magistrates as election. I told him 
that though the people were sound, there were a numerous 
sect who had monarchy in contemplation ; that the secre- 
tary of the treasury was one of these. That I had heard 
him say that this constitution was a shilly-shally thing, of 
mere milk and water, which could not last, and was only- 
good as a step to something better. That when we re- 
flected, that he had endeavored in the convention to make 
an English constitution of it, and when failing in that, we 
saw all his measures tending to bring it to the same thing, 
it was natural for us to be jealous ; and particularly, when 
we saw that these measures had established corruption in 
the legislature, where there was a squadron devoted to the 
nod of the treasury, doing whatever he had directed, and 
ready to do what he should direct." 

In this last passage Mr. Jefferson comes directly to the 



220 THE CHARACTER OF 

point, and avers, that in a conversation with general Wash- 
ington in October, 1792, he stated to him that there were 
a numerous sect of politicians in the country who had 
monarchy in contemplation, and that general Hamilton 
was one of them. Here was a direct attempt on the part 
of Mr. Jefferson to excite jealousy and hostility between 
general Washington and general Hamihon, on a subject 
the most likely of all others to create discord and aliena- 
tion of feeling. But notwithstanding he takes much pains, 
in a variety of instances, to have it understood that he was 
confidentially intimate with general Washington, that they 
had frequent intercourse with each other, exchanged sen- 
timents freely, and were on the best terms ; still, he had 
not influence enough to shake general Washington's con- 
fidence in general Hamilton's integrity and principles. 
The latter remained at the head of the treasury until De- 
cember, 1794, when he resigned his office and retired to 
private life. 

Judge Marshall, in his Life of Washington, when no- 
ticing this event, says — 

" Seldom has any minister excited in a higher or more 
extensive degree than colonel Hamilton, the opposite pas- 
sions of love and hate. His talents were of a grade too 
exalted not to receive from all the tribute of profound re- 
spect ; and his integrity and honor as a man, not less than 
his official rectitude, though slandered at a distance, were 
admitted to be superior to reproach by those enemies who 
knew him. 

" But with respect to his political principles and designs, 
the most contrary opinions were entertained. While one 
party sincerely believed his object to be the preservation 
of the constitution of the United States in its original 
purity ; the other, with perhaps equal sincerity, imputed 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 221 

to him the insidious intention of subverting it. While his 
friends were persuaded that he viewed foreign nations 
with an equal eye, (as a statesman) his enemies could per- 
ceive in his conduct only hostility to France and attach- 
ment to her rival." 

After aUuding to the difficult times in which he was 
called to act, particularly those arising from the sentiments 
in the country towards the French revolution — that he 
judged that great event without prejudice, and had the 
courage to predict that it could not terminate in a free and 
popular government ; and stating his opinions respecting 
the nature of our government and the probable sources of 
its danger, judge Marshall adds — 

" In the esteem and good opinion of the president, to 
whom he was best known, colonel Hamilton at all times 
maintained a high place. While balancing on the mission 
to England, and searching for a character to whom the 
interesting negotiation with that government should be 
confided, the mind of the chief magistrate was directed, 
among others, to this gentleman. He carried with him 
out of office the same cordial esteem for his character and 
respect for his talents which had induced his appoint- 
ment." 

In his letter accepting general Hamilton's resignation 
of the office of secretary of the treasury, the president 
said — " I cannot suffer you, however, to close your public 
service without uniting to the satisfaction which must 
arise in your own mind from conscious rectitude, assuran- 
ces of my most perfect persuasion that you have deserved 
well of your country. 

" My personal knowledge of your exertions, while it au- 
thorizes me to hold this language, justifies the sincere 
friendship which I have borne you, and which will accom- 
pany you in every situation in life." 
19=^ 



222 THE CHARACTER OF 

This strong expression of respect and affection from 
such a man as George Washington, whose feelings were 
elevated as far above all affectation and hypocrisy, as his 
life had been above hollow-hearted professions and selfish- 
ness, might with the most sincere gratification be placed 
in the scale opposite to Mr. Jefferson's dark, concealed, 
and insidious slanders ; and had he been fully informed 
of what Mr. Jefferson's posthumous publications were 
to contain, he might, and he doubtless would, have man- 
ifested towards him and them, the most heart-felt con- 
tempt. 

Equally unfortunate was Mr. Jefferson in his attempts 
to revile and ridicule Hamilton's financial system. That 
scheme, which he says was intended to puzzle one portion 
of the community and to corrupt the other, was, in itself, 
one of the most extraordinary efforts of the human mind, 
in a political point of view, and its effects upon the coun- 
try were of the most beneficial kind. It has been seen 
what views he entertained, or professed to entertain of it. 
In opposition to them may be placed the sentiments of a 
much greater statesman than Mr. Jefferson ever was. In 
a speech, delivered at a meeting of citizens of the city of 
New York in 1831, by Daniel Webster, a senator in con- 
gress from the state of Massachusetts, when speaking of 
general Hamilton, he said — " He saw at last his hopes ful- 
filled ; he saw the constitution adopted, and the govern- 
ment under it established and organized. The discerning 
eye of Washington immediately called him to that post 
which was infinitely the most important in the administra- 
tion of the new system. He was secretary of the treas- 
ury ; and how he fulfilled the duties of such a place, at 
such a time, the whole country perceived with delight 
and the whole world saw with admiration. He smote the 
fock of the national resources, and abundant streams af 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 223 

revenue burst forth. He touched the dead corpse of the 
public credit, and it sprung upon its feet. The fabled 
birth of Minerva, from the brain of Jove, was hardly more 
sudden, or more perfect, than the financial system of the 
United States, burst forth from the conceptions of Alex- 
ander Hamilton," 



224 THE CHARACTER C«' 



CHAPTER XII. 

Mr. Jefferson's policy to render the federalists unpopular by stig- 
matizing them as monarchists — In his letter to Mazzei he char- 
ges general Washington with being a monarchist — John Adams 
originally a republican — Essex federalists — No proof adduced 
to support the charge — Truth to be ascertained by the measures 
of the government while under their control — Judiciary — Pay- 
ment of the national debt — Hamilton's funding system adopted 
— National bank — Opposed by the republicans — Its constitution- 
ality established by the supreme court and acknowledged by 
congress — Not monarchical — The true ground of opposition its 
being owned and managed by federalists — Establishment of a 
navy — Its necessity and utility universally admitted — Mr. Jef- 
ferson's opposition to the British treaty and wish to screen Ge- 
net, evidence of his attachment to France — Jefferson discovered 
nothing monarchical in the federalists until after his party was 
formed — Letter to Carmichael, March, 1791 — Sentiments in the 
Ana in 1818 — His greatest apprehension of monarchy arose 
from the levees, &c. — All ground of fear had been removed be- 
fore his Ana were written. 

From many references which have been made to, and 
quotations from, Mr. Jefferson's works, it has been seen 
that the principal artifice used by him to render the fed- 
eralists unpopular, and in that way to destroy their influ- 
ence, was to stigmatize then as monarchists. In the com- 
mencement of his " Ana '* he says, " But a short review of 
facts ^ =^ # # will show that the contests of that 
day were contests of principle, between the advocates of 
republican and those of a kingly government ; and that, 
had not the former made the efforts they did, our govern- 
ment would have been, even at this early day, a very dif- 
ferent thing from what the successful issue of those efforts 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 225 

have made it." What is to be understood by these aster- 
isks it is not easy to determine ; but the sentence assumes 
it as a fact that there was a party in the country who 
were endeavoring to change the republican system of its 
government into a monarchy. This is a specific and cer- 
tainly a very serious charge ; and if not founded in truth 
is not only disreputable but base and detestable. By per- 
sisting in it he eventually succeeded in making it to be 
believed by a large portion of the people, and at the same 
time established his own claim to the character of the 
great champion of republicanism. In his letter to Mazzei 
he makes a specific charge of monarchical principles 
against general Washington, and he rarely missed an op- 
portunity of alleging it against several of the mem.bers of 
his cabinet, and particularly against general Hamilton. 
He professes to repeat frequent conversations with that 
distinguished man, in which he avers that general Hamil- 
ton openly, and without the least reserve, declared his 
preference for a monarchy over a republican government, 
and even a monarchy bottomed on corruption. A similar 
charge is made by him against general Knox ; and then 
enlarging the circle he says, that upon his entering upon 
the office of secretary of state early in the year 1790, and 
during the first session of congress under the new consti- 
tution, at dinner parties to which he was invited and pres- 
ent, " a preference of kingly over republican government 
was evidently the favorite sentiment." Even Mr. John 
Adams, with whom he carried on an intimate and ani- 
mated epistolary correspondence for a good many years 
before their deaths, in his " Ana " is involved in the same" 
condemnation. " Mr. Adams," he says, " had originally 
been a republican. The glare of royalty and nobility dur- 
ing his mission to England, had made him believe their 
fascination a necessary ingredient in government." " His 



226 THE CHARACTER OF 

book on the American constitution having made known 
his political bias, he was taken up by the monarchical fed- 
eralists in his absence, and on his return to the United 
States he was by them made to believe that the general 
disposition of our citizens was favorable to monarchy. He 
here wrote his Davila, as a supplement to the former work, 
and his election to the presidency confirmed him in his 
errors." 

In one of his letters, dated January 13, 1S13, he says, 
" Anglomany, monarchy and separation, then, are the 
principles of the Essex federalists ; Anglomany and mon- 
archy those of the Hamiltonians, and Anglomany alone 
that of the portion among the people who call themselves 
federalists." His allegations respecting some of the mem- 
bers of the conventions of Annapolis and Philadelphia will 
be found in this work. He says repeatedly that general 
Washington knew his suspicions of general Hamilton's 
designs against the government, and he adds in one in- 
stance that he wished to quiet them. 

Charges and insinuations of this kind are to be found 
scattered through a large portion of Mr. Jefferson's cor- 
respondence, sometimes more and sometimes less direct, 
according to the character of the correspondent or the na- 
ture of the object he had in view, but always clear and 
explicit enough to answer his purpose. 

In the letter to Mr. Melish, dated January 13, 1813, 
from which a passage has been cited, he says, " I sincerely 
wish our differences were but personally who should gov- 
ern, and that the principles of our constitution were those 
of both parties. Unfortunately it is otherwise ; and the 
question of preference between monarchy and republican- 
ism, which has so long divided mankind elsewhere, threat- 
ens a permanent division." Here the charge that mo- 
narchical principles not only existed here as late as 1813, 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 227 

but that they threatened to establish a permanent division 
among the people is explicitly made. To prove the jus- 
tice of this charge, advanced by Mr. Jefferson immediate- 
ly after the organization of the government and persevered 
in down almost to the close of his life, it would seem to 
have been necessary for him to produce something in the 
shape of evidence. At the date of this letter he had made 
it and persisted in it against the federalists for more than 
twenty years. Those distinguished persons who were first 
singled out as the objects of his maledictions had long been 
dead ; and of course all danger to our institutions and sys- 
tem of government from their precepts or example was at 
an end. But as that which he called a revolution, that is, 
his own elevation to the head of the government, had been 
accomplished, in a very essential degree, by the inculcation 
of this imputation among the people at large, he was desir- 
ous of persevering in it to the last, in order to secure and 
perpetuate his title to the character of the great republican 
patriot of the United States. It therefore becomes a sub- 
ject of much importance to examine the history of federal- 
ism and the character and conduct of the federalists as a 
great political party, who formed and procured the adop- 
tion of the constitution of the United States, and adminis- 
tered the government under it for the first twelve years of 
its existence, in order to ascertain by the truth of history 
whether they ever, jointly or severally, entertained mo- 
narchical principles or attempted to introduce a monarchy 
into their country. If it be true that those who formed 
the constitution did endeavor to destroy the work of their 
own hands, and attempted to transform the government 
established by their exertions into a monarchy, the proof 
of it must necessarily appear in the proceedings of that 
government whilst it was under their care. And if, after 
a thorough examination, no such proof can he found, the 



228 THE CHARACTER OP 

conclusion will be irresistible, not only that the charge is 
without foundation, but that it was made, and persevered 
in, for the basest of purposes. 

One of the earliest, and undoubtedly one of the most 
important, measures adopted at the first session of the first 
congress under the constitution, was the establishment of 
a national judiciary. As the constitution provided ex- 
pressly for such a branch of the government, it became 
the duty of congress to establish courts in pursuance of 
that provision. Of course the measure itself could not be 
considered as monarchical in its character or tendency ; or 
if it was it was the fault of the constitution, and not of the 
administration or of the congress. 

Another important measure which occupied much of 
the time and attention of the first congress, was the adop- 
tion of a plan for the adjustment and payment of the nation- 
al debt. This debt was incurred during the war of inde- 
pendence and lay with immovable weight upon the states. 
The constitution gave the power, in express terms, to pro- 
vide the means to pay the debts of the United States. A 
large part of the amount was due to foreigners, and the resi- 
due was scattered among their own citizens. There was no 
difference of opinion respecting the duty of discharging it 
as fast as the means of the government would allow. 
The difficulty arose respecting the manner of accomplish- 
ing it. 

A great deal of discussion took place on that point of 
the case ; which was finally terminated by the adoption of 
the plan proposed by the secretary of the treasury, com- 
monly called the funding system, which passed both houses 
of congress and was approved by president Washington. 
This measure was satisfactory to the public creditors; and 
under its operation, the debt was eventually paid in full, 
without burdening the country. If there was anything 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 229 

monarchical in the adoption of a measure expressly pro- 
vided for in the constitution, and required by every princi- 
ple of national honesty and honor, there might have been 
some color for the charge preferred by Mr. Jefferson 
against the federalists for forming and adopting the fund- 
ing system, and paying the debts of the United States. If 
there was not — if integrity in the performance of so plain 
and obvious a duty as that of paying debts justly incurred, 
and honestly due, is a republican principle, and a proper 
characteristic of a republican government, it must have 
been brought as a charge of monarchical propensity in the 
federalists for the sole purpose of swelling the catalogue 
of calumnies against that description of politicians. Men 
might naturally be supposed liUely to differ about the 
mode of accomplishing so important an object as that of 
the payment of so large and meritorious a debt, and a ma- 
jority might be mistaken in the adoption of a plan for that 
purpose. But in neither case, had it occurred, would it have 
had the least possible tendency to prove a monarchical dispo- 
sition, or design, in the party who had fallen into the error. 
If there was anything of such a character in the funding 
system, it must have been in carrying it into effect. Now 
it is a little remarkable, that for eight years, during the 
period of his own administration of the national govern- 
ment, when that system was in the course of execution, 
Mr. Jefferson often boasted of the large payments of the 
public debt that had been made under it; and although it 
was in full force during every successive administration, 
until the debt was finally paid in full, the monarchical ten- 
dency of it has not since his election as president, caused 
any alarm or anxiety for the safety of republicanism in 
these United States; nor has it ever been alluded to by 
any succeeding president, as tending to the introduction of 



230 THE CHARACTER OF 

Another measure which met with strong opposition 
from Mr. Jefferson and his political friends, was the propo- 
sition to establish a national bank. This was violently- 
opposed on various grounds, and particularly as being not 
warranted by the constitution. The act for its establish- 
ment was passed, notwithstanding these objections, and 
approved by president Washington. Its constitutionality 
was subsequently brought before the supreme court, where 
it was fully considered, and established by a regular judi- 
cial decision. Among the most able and the most stren- 
uous opponents of the institution was Mr. Madison of Vir- 
ginia, afterwards president of the United States. It is a 
remarkable circumstance, that the charter of the bank ex- 
pired during his administration; and such was found to 
be the absolute necessity of a national monied institution, 
in the management of the affairs of the government, that 
a new bank, with a capital nearly four times as large as the 
former, was incorporated, and Mr. Madison, who, when a 
member of the house of representatives, most zealously 
opposed the establishment of the first bank on the ground 
of its unconstitutionality, approved and signed the second 
bill as president of the United States. 

The constitutionality of a national bank has been ac- 
knowledged by congress under every administration since 
the formation of the government, except that under which 
the last bank expired. The question may, therefore, be 
considered as settled, as far as the opinion of congress, the 
decision of the courts, and the acquiescence of the coun- 
try for forty years, can settle any such question. Still, the 
monarchical tendency of such an institution may not be 
affected by any of the foregoing considerations. The gov- 
ernment, in all its branches, may have approved of it, and 
the people may have acquiesced in it for nearly half a 
century, and yet its tendency may have been necessarily 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 231 

towards the introduction of a monarchy in the place of 
our republican government. If so, it was beyond doubt a 
most dangerous institution. Such Mr. Jefferson says it 
actually was. In a letter to Mr. Gallatin, without date, but 
which, by its position in his correspondence, was probably 
written in December, 1803, or January 1384, he says, " from 
a passage in the letter of the president, I observe an idea of 
establishing a branch bank of the United States in New 
Orleans. This institution is one of the most deadly hos- 
tility existing against the principles and form of our con- 
stitution. The nation is, at this time, so strong and united 
in its sentiments, that it cannot be shaken at this moment. 
But suppose a series of untoward events should occur, suf- 
ficient to bring into doubt the competency of a republican 
government to meet a crisis of great danger, or to imki^ige 
the confidence of the people in the public functionaries ; an 
institution like this, penetrating by its branches every part 
of the Union, acting by command and in phalanx, may in 
a critical moment, upset the government. I deem no gov- 
ernment safe which #fe under the vassalage of any self- 
constituted authorities, or any other authority than that of 
the nation, or its regular functionaries. What an obstruc- 
tion could not this bank of the United States, with all its 
branch banks, be in time of war? It might dictate to us 
the peace we should accept, or withdraw its aids. Ought 
we then to give further growth to an institution so power- 
ful, so hostile ? That it is so hostile we know, 1. From 
a knowledge of the principles of the persons composing the 
body of directors in every bank, principal or branch ; and 
those of most of the stockholders. 2. From their opposi- 
tion to the measures and principles of the government, and 
to the election of those friendly to them : an3, 3. From the 
sentiments of the newspapers they support. Now, while 
ive are strong, it is the greatest duty we owe to the safety 



232 THE CHARACTER OF 

of our constitution, to bring this powerful enemy to a per- 
fect subordination under its authorities. The first measure 
would be to reduce them to an equal fooling only with 
other banks, as to the favors of the government." ' 

It vv^as not sufficient for Mr. Jefferson, in order to main- 
tain the ground he had taken, to prove that a national bank 
was mischievous, or even unconstitutional. It might have 
been both, and yet had no monarchical tendency. Thai 
he, and of course that the leaders of his party, were op- 
posed to such an institution, is undoubtedly true. And 
whoever will carefully examine the foregoing extract from 
his correspondence, will easily discern what was the real 
ground of his opposition. His remark is, that the bank 
was one of the most deadly hostility against the principles 
and form of our constitution. He says, that the nation 
was, at that moment, too strong and united in its senti- 
ments to be shaken. But if a series of untoward events 
should occur, sufficient to bring into doubt the competency 
of a republican government to meet a crisis of great dan- 
ger, or to unhinge the confidence of^he people in the pub- 
lic functionaries^ such an institution, acting by command, 
and in phalanx, might in a critical moment upset the gov- 
ment. He argues this from a knowledge q{ the principles 
of the directors of the bank of the United States, and those 
of most of the stockholders — ^from their opposition to the 
the measures of the government — and from the character of 
their newspapers I The true meaning of all this is, that 
the officers of the bank and many of the stockholders were 
federalists, that they disapproved of A/s administration; 
and if anything should ever destroy the confidence of the 
people in his principles and measures^ they ivould thereby 
destroy the goi'ki'mncnt and bring in a monarchy. At the 
same time, he did not at that moment apprehend any im- 
mediate danger. He considered his own .popularity too 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 233 

firmly established to be shaken. Of course, the inference 
is too obvious to be questioned, that in his view the gov- 
ernment would be safe, as long as his popularity and influ- 
ence lasted, from their monarchical propensities and inten- 
tions ; but whenever the time should come that would 
bring about a change in the public feeling, and his popu- 
larity should decline, or be destroyed, then the bank would 
step in and overthrow the government. Then it would 
show its true character, which he declares to be, one of the 
most deadly hostility against not only " the principles, but 
the very form of the government.''' This explains Mr. 
Jefferson's meaning when he declares his election to have 
been a 7' evolution. 

But allowing all that he can claim for his sentiments, as 
above announced, respecting the character and capacity of 
the bank for mischief, he falls far short of proving its mo- 
narchical tendency or its power to " upset the governm.ent.'' 
If it had accomplished the latter object, it might possibly 
have plunged the country into a state of anarchy ; but it 
does not follow as a n€^essary consequence, that it v.'ould 
have established a monarchy. Re had no such fears. He 
talked of monarchy and monarchical propensities and de- 
signs among the federalists, solely for the purpose of hold- 
ing himself up as the great friend of the people, the de- 
fender of their rights, and the " apostle of republicanism." 
This is the language of every demagogue who has ever 
undertaken to deceive a community for the purpose of ac- 
complishing his own ambitious views and projects. 

Experience has proved that there was notliing in the 
character of a national bank which had any tendency to 
change our republican government into a monarchy. The 
two institutions continued in force for forty years, out of 
forty-six, after the establishment of the government. They 
both proved in a high degree useful to the country, and- 
20=^ 



234 THE CHARACTER OF 

had a most important agency in promoting the general 
welfare and prosperity. The condition of the pecuniary 
affairs of the union, since the expiration of the second, 
and especially the pecuniary distresses of 1837, afford the 
hest commentary on the wisdom of congress in providing 
such an institution ; and the loss of it was most severely 
felt in the depression of the value of property, and of all 
the business of the country. 

The proposition for the establishment of a navy, was a 
measure exclusively of federal origin. To this Mr. Jeffer- 
son and of course his partizans, were most decidedly op- 
posed. General Washington, in his official communica- 
tion to congress at the session immediately preceding 
his final retirement from office, urged its necessity and im- 
portance upon the consideration of that branch of the gov- 
ernment; and during the short period of his successor's ad- 
ministration, much was done towards the establishment of 
that species of national protection and defence, Mr. Jef- 
ferson followed Mr. Adams as president ; and under his in- 
fluence the naval system was aban^pied, and a large pro- 
portion of the force which had been built up under the 
former was reduced and sold by the latter. 

The history of the government since the administration 
of Mr. Jefferson closed, and the universal manifestatipn of 
public opinion in favor of a navy, are sufficient to deter- 
mine the relative merits of federal policy, and his opinions 
on the subject. Whatever its tendency might have been 
in his view, whether monarchical or republican, there is no 
political topic in the whole circle of national affairs, in 
which the people of the United States have come more 
fully to agree, than in the absolute necessity of a navy to 
our national security. In a letter to Elbridge Gerry, da- 
ted January 26th , 1799, (Jefferson's \Aforks, 3d vol. page 
409,) he says, " I am for relying for our internal defence 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 235 

on our militia solely until actual invasion, and for such a 
naval force only as may protect our coasts and harbors 
from such depredations as we have experienced ; and not 
for a standing army in time of peace, which may over- 
awe the public sentiment; nor for a navy, which, by its 
own expenses and the eternal wars in which it will impli- 
cate us, will grind us with public burthens, and sink us 
under them." These were his sentiments. Events have 
shown that they were unworthy of a great statesman, or 
even a practical politician. 

Mr. Jefferson was opposed to the treaty between the 
United States and Great Britain, negotiated by Mr. Jay, 
which was far more beneficial to this country than any 
treaty we have ever had with that nation from that day to 
this. His feelings in relation to it are to be accounted 
for upon the ground of his attachment to France and en-* 
mity to Great Britain. Mr. Jefferson manifestly wished 
to screen Genet from the censure of our government dur- 
ing his residence in this country as minister from France. 

Here also his Frengh feelings got the upperhand as in 
the before mentioned case. 

But if there was anything in the conduct of our admin- 
istration, in either, or in all these transactions that had a 
monarchical tendency, all danger from them had ceased 
long before his "Ana" were written, or his letters selected 
and prepared for publication ; so that as far as that danger 
was concerned, his mind must have been relieved from all 
apprehensions from that quarter. 

There was nothing in the nature or tendency of the 
measures or policy of the government under the federal 
administration of it, that savored in the slightest degree of 
monarchical principles or propensities. Nor did Mr. Jeffer- 
son himself profess to consider them as of such a character, 
until the party of which he was the original head and lead- 



236 THE CHARACTER OF 

er, had become more distinctly formed, and it became 
necessary for them, in their future plans and operations, 
to assume a counter-sign, by which they should be known 
and rallied. In March, 1791, he was apparently grat- 
ified with the measures of the government. In a letter of 
that date to William Carmichael, who held then a diplo- 
matic office in Spain, he remarks — " The term of the first 
congress having expired on the 3d inst., they separated on 
that day, much important business being necessarily post- 
poned. New elections have taken place for the most part, 
and very few changes made. This is one of many proofs 
that the proceedings of the new government have give?! 
gen£ral satisfaction. Some acts, indeed, have produced 
local discontents ; but these can never be avoided." These 
sentiments were uttered, in this confidential manner, to a 
man with whom he appears to have been on terms of pri- 
vate as well as public intimacy and friendship. And this 
letter was written after the establishment of the judiciary, 
the national bank, the adoption of the funding system, and 
the assumption of the state debts — the great measures of 
the government at its outset, and which, from the language 
used, and the sentiments expressed by him afterwards, and 
particularly in that extraordinary farrago which goes under 
the name of "Ana," and has been so often quoted from or 
referred to, would seem to have been peculiarly obnoxious 
to him. In February, 181S, writing professedly on what 
occurred nearly thirty years before, he calls the financial 
system which had been established before the date of his 
letter to Carmichcel " a puzzle," intended " to exclude popu- 
lar understanding and inquiry ; " and " a machine for the 
corruption of the legislature." And he adds, that " with 
grief and shame it must be acknowledged that his ma- 
chine was not without its effect." He afterwards does say 
that " nothing like a majority in congress had yielded to 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 237 

this corruption. Far from ii. But a divison not very un- 
equal had already taken place in the honest part of that 
body between the parties styled republican and, federal. 
The latter being inonarchists in principle adhered to Ham- 
ilton, of course, as their leader in that principle, and this 
mercenary phalanx added to them insured him always a 
majority in both houses ; so that the whole action of the 
legislature was now under the direction of the treasury." If 
this state of things ever existed, it was before the date of 
the letter to Carmichsel. That was written in 1791; the 
above extract from the "Ana," in 1818. In the former he 
unquestionably wrote his real sentiments, when he said 
the proceedings of the government had given general 
satisfaction, though some of the acts of congress had pro- 
duced local discontents, which could never be avoided. In 
the latter, he was laying up materials for history, and his 
object was to blacken the characters of the federalists, and 
to elevate his 6wn. 

But it would seem from his own often repeated decla- 
rations, that the greatest cause of his fears for the liberties 
of his country was the pomp and parade which was ob- 
served about the executive branch of the government. 
He appears to have been very apprehensive that the cere- 
monies which took place at the inauguration of general 
Washington as president of the United Slates, the levees 
at his house, the birth-night balls and new-year visits, 
which were voluntarily given by the inhabitants of the 
cities of New York and Philadelphia, would, unless check- 
ed and discountenanced, prove the certain harbinger of a 
monarchical government. It has been seen that he calls 
an expression in the letter to Mazzei a misrepresentation, 
which, as first published in this country, made him say 
that the monarchical parly, by which he always meant 
the federalists, had imposed upon us the form of the Brit- 



238 THE CHARACTER OF 

ish government. This, at it stood, would of course be 
considered as an allusion to our constitution. In his ex- 
planation of his own meaning, and for the purpose of cor- 
recting this misrepresentation, he says, in a letter tO' James 
Madison, dated August 3, 1797, " The original has a sen- 
timent like this, ' They are endeavoring to submit us to 
the substance as they have already to the forins of the 
British government;' meaning by forms the birth-days, 
levees, processions to parliam.ent, inauguration pomposi- 
ties, &c." After admitting all that Mr. Jefferson could have 
asked respecting the nature of these ceremonies, allow- 
ing them to be as childish and frivolous as he could have 
wished, still it is impossible to believe that he actually 
feared that, if persisted in, they would in the end change 
our government into a monarchy ; and it is not very easy 
to believe that he even thought they had any real tenden- 
cy to produce that result. The cause was not sufficient 
to produce the effect. 

But however sincere Mr. Jefferson may originally have 
been in his apprehensions of danger to our republican 
system of government from this source, every symptom 
or pretence of fear of that danger had vanished long before 
the time when he prepared his " Ana" for future publica- 
tion ; and no reason can be given for his placing his fears 
among his materials for history. Indeed no other expla- 
nation can be given of the pains he took to collect and 
display those fears in his manuscripts, so long after those 
whom he charged with having treasonable designs against 
the government and liberties of the country had ceased to 
exist, and when events had shown that they were ground- 
less, except the habit of slandering the characters of those 
whose talents he feared and whose influence he dreaded, 
and, it may be added, whose patriotic virtues he could 
never imitate. This habit by long continued use had be- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 239 

come inveterate ; and as he bad succeeded in raising the 
fabric of his popularity on that foundation, he probably 
persuaded himself that he should be able to perpetuate it 
in the same manner and by the use of the same means. 
And it may be considered as a signal dispensation of 
Providence that his life was protracted to such an ex- 
traordinary length that he outlived his judgment, and was 
left to collect together in his dotage a body of facts and 
sentiments which will forever destroy the reputation he 
had taken such unwearied and unwarrantable pains to 
form and establish. 



240 THE CHARACTER OF 



CHAPTER XIII. 

The federalists had no confidence in Mr. Jefferson as a politician 
— His election a revolution — To ascertain the nature of that 
revolution his messages to congress must be examined — No act 
alluded to in his messages to congress as having a monarchical 
tendency — No original national measures recommended by him 
but gun-boats and dry docks — Letter to Nicholson on gun-boats — 
Committee under Madison on gun-boats — Secretary of navy's re- 
port to that committee — Correspondence between general Wash- 
ington and Nicholas, &;c., respecting John Langhorne. 

The federalists had no confidence in Mr. Jefferson's 
principles as a politician, nor in his talents as a statesman. 
In a letter to judge Roane, dated September 6, 1819, (vol. 
4, page 316,) speaking of his own election, Mr. Jefferson 
says : — 

" I had read in the Enquirer, and with great approba- 
tion, the pieces signed Hampden, and have read them 
again with redoubled approbation in the copies you have 
been so kind as to send me. They contain the true prin- 
ciples of the revolution of 1800, for that vjas as real a rev- 
olution in the principles of 07ir governmeiit as that of 1776 
wa^ in its form ; not effected indeed by the sword as that, 
but by the rational and peaceable instrument of reform, 
the suffrage of the people." If this revolution produced 
any other important result than a change of men the fact 
can easily be shown, because there must necessarily be 
record evidence to prove it. Mr. Jeflerson was in office 
eight years. It was his constitutional duty to give to 
congress, from time to time, " information of the state of 
the Union, and recommend to their consideration such 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 241 

measures as he should judge necessary and expedient." 
To his official comrnunicaiions to congress, therefore, we 
must look for such recommendations, and to the statute 
book for the measures thus recommended by him, so far 
as they were adopted by congress and carried into effect. 

It will be expedient to examine the annual messages 
delivered by Mr. JefTerson during the eight years in which 
he held the office of president, in order to ascertain the 
important measures which, after having achieved such a 
great revolution as that of 1800, he thought proper to rec- 
ommend to the consideration of congress. 

In the first of those messages he states, as a matter of 
thankfulness to Providence^ that peace existed between us 
and the powers of Europe with which we had principal 
relations ; and adds, that a spirit of peace prevailed gene- 
rally among our Indian neighbors ; and that there was 
but one exception to be made in the general slate of things, 
which was, a denunciation of war by Tripoli, one of the 
Barbary powers. He, however, wished he could add that 
our situation was entirely satisfactory with the othei 
bary powers. He laid before congress the result of the 
census that had recently been taken ; he said there was 
reasonable ground of confidence that internal taxes might 
be dispensed with; that a reduction in expenditures might 
be made ; that the receipts and expenditures would be 
laid before the houses; that the secretary of war had 
formed a statement of all the posts and stations where 
garrisons would be expedient, and the number of men 
that would be wanted ; that the account of military stores 
would be laid before congress; that there might be some 
difference of opinion with respect to the extent to which 
naval preparations should be carried; that it was doubtful 
whether the authority given for establishing sites for naval 
purposes had been perfectly understood ; that the fortifi- 
21 



242 THE CHARACTER OF 

cations in our harbors present considerations of greA dif- 
ficulty, some of them being on a scale suited to the advan- 
tages of their position, the efficacy of their protection and 
the importance of the points within it, others will cpst so 
much in their erection and maintenance, and requires 
such a force to garrison them, that it was questionable 
what was best to be done ; that agriculture, manufactures, 
commerce and navigation are most free when left most to 
individual enterprise ; that the judiciary system, and es- 
pecially that portion of it recently erected, would of course 
present itself to the consideration of congress, and whilst 
engaged on that subject, it would be well to inquire 
whether the institution of juries had been extended to all 
the cases involving the security of our persons and prop- 
erty ; that he could not omit recommending a revisal of 
the naturalization laws, as a residence of fourteen years 
was a denial in a great proportion of the cases of those 
who asked it. " These," said he, " fellow-citizens, are the 
matters respecting the state of the nation which I have 
thought of importance to be submitted to your considera- 
tion at this time. Some others of less moment, or not 
yet ready for communication, will be the subject of sepa- 
rate messages." 

This was the first message communicated to congress 
by Mr. Jefferson after the great revolution of which he 
speaks in his letter to judge Roane already quoted, which 
in importance he considered equal to that of 1776. But, 
strange to hear, not a single measure of any moment is 
proposed for adoption, and' what is still more extraordinary, 
none are denounced as proper to be repealed on the 
ground of their being of monarchical or anti-republican 
character. Not a suggestion is made that indicates either 
talents or public spirit; in short nothing is recommended 
which might not have proceeded from a mind of very or- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 243 

dinary compass and character, and in the most quiet and 
peaceable times. 

Mr. Jetferson's second annual message was delivered 
at the opening of the session of congress in December, 
1802, and is still more barren than the first. He first 
mentions the war with Tripoli, and that more ships of 
war had been ordered to the Mediterranean for fear the 
other Barbary powers might join the Tripolitnns ; but that 
later intelligence had removed those apprehensions. He 
then states that a convention with Georgia had been rati- 
fied by their legislature, and a re-purchase of the Talassee 
country had been made of the Creeks. He gives an ac- 
count of the proceedings with the Indians, and then slates 
the receipts into the treasury, the payment towards the 
public debt ; that some of the states had paid up the in- 
ternal taxes, in others they had not ; that by avoiding 
false objects of expense he expresses the opinion that, 
without internal taxes and without borrowing money, they 
were able to make large payments towards exti;-guishing 
the national debt, and that this encouraged the government 
to proceed as it had begun, in substituting economy for 
taxation. He then alludes to the treasury accounts, and 
states that no change is deemed necessary in the military 
establishment; recommends a review of the militia sys- 
tem, and states that estim.ates for the naval department 
will be communicated ; and then recommends the forma- 
tion of a dry dock, for the purpose of laying up and pre- 
serving the ships of war. He then alludes to the general 
duties of the government — which are, to cultivate peace 
and maintain commerce and navigation, foster fisheries, 
protect the manufactories adapted to our situation, pre- 
serve the faith of the nation by an exact discharge of its 
debts and contracts, expend the public money with the same 
care and economy that we would practice w^ith our own, 



244 THE CHARACTER OF 

impose on the citizens no unnecessary burdens, keep all 
things within the pale of constitutional powers, and cherish 
the federal union as the only rock of safety. 

The session of congress at which this message was de- 
livered, completed two years of Mr. Jefferson's adminis- 
tration after the important revolution of 1800 ; and yet 
not a single measure, except the recommendation of a dry 
dock, of a general national character, which had a tenden- 
cy to mark the era as in any way distinguished from the 
preceding administrations, was recommended ; and the dry 
dock was ridiculed as a useless and preposterous measure, 
and notwithstanding his great popularity and influence 
with his party, and the general subserviency of both houses 
of congress to him, it was never carried into effect. 

Mr. Jefferson's third annual message was delivered on 
the 17th of October, 1803, congress having met earlier 
than usual on that year. In that he first alludes to the dif- 
ficulties which had arisen with Spain respecting the right 
of deposit at New Orleans ; and then informs congress 
of the treaty with France for the purchase of Louisiana ; 
of the purchase of the country belonging to the tribe of 
Kaskaskia Indians ; and he states the progress of improve- 
ments in agriculture and household manufactures among 
other tribes ; that the small vessels for the Mediterranean 
service had been sent to that sea; that a convention had 
been entered into with Great Britain, for fixing the bound- 
ary line on our north-eastern and north-western angles, to 
the satisfaction of both parties ; that the account of receipts 
and expenditures for the year w^ould be laid before con- 
gress ; that more than three millions of the public debt 
had been paid, exclusive of interest ; that the purchase of 
Louisiana would add thirteen millions to that debt; that 
remittances for the foreign debt had been made without 
loss ; that fifty thousand dollars appropriated by congress 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 245 

for gun-boats remained unexpended; that he had seen 
with concern the flames of war lighted up again in Eu- 
rope, and states the course we ought to pursue towards 
the belligerent nations. 

This document preserves the same general character 
with the two former ones, exhibiting none of the views or 
talents of a statesman, nor the recommendation of any 
measure which showed the necessity, or even expediency, 
of the revolution of 1800. 

The fourth annual message from Mr. Jefferson was de- 
livered at the opening of the session of congress on the 
8th of November, 1804. It first mentions with satisfac- 
tion that the war in Europe had not extended to other 
nations, and that we had been disturbed less on the ocean 
than on former occasions ; and then slates that complaints 
had been received, that persons residing within the United 
States had undertaken to arm merchant vessels and force 
a commerce into certain ports and countries in defiance of 
the laws of those countries, and that he did not doubt con- 
gress would adopt measures to restrain such conduct in 
future ; that the law authorizing the establishment of a 
district and port of entry at Mobile had been misunder- 
stood by Spain, but that explanations had been given 
which it was expected would be satisfactory ; that Spain 
had withdrawn their objections to the validity of our title 
to Louisiana, the limits remaining for settlement; that 
with the nations of Europe in general we were on terms 
of friendship, and that we had received assurances from 
the belligerents of the friendly feelings which are due to 
an honest neutrality ; that the energy of our proceedings 
in the Mediterranean he trusted would reduce the barbae 
rians of Tripoli to a desire for peace ; that the bey of Tu- 
nis having made requisitions unauthorized by treaty, their 
rejection had produced from him some expressions of dis- 
21=^ 



246 THE CHARACTER OF 

content ; that peace continued with the other powers on 
that coast; that the officers of the temporary government 
of the territory of Orleans had been appointed; that the 
district of Louisiana had been divided into subordinate 
districts, and a commanding officer appointed in each; 
that conferences had been opened with the Indian tribes in 
our newly acquired limits for the purpose of establishing 
a good understanding and neighborly relations with them ; 
that an important relinquishmeiat of native title had been 
received from the Delawares on this side the Mississippi; 
that the act of congress of February, 1803, for building a 
number of gun-boats was in a course of execution, and he 
states a variety of considerations which will have due 
weight with congress in adding to their number from year 
to year, as experience shall test their utility ; that no cir- 
cumstance had occurred since the previous session which 
called for an increase of the military force ; that the ac- 
count of receipts and expenditures would be laid before 
the houses ; that the state of the finances fulfilled his ex- 
pectations, and had enabled them to pay three millions six 
hundred thousand dollars of the national debt; that the rev- 
enue of the past year exceeded that of the preceding ; and 
that the probable receipts of the ensuing year would be 
sufficient to meet the demands upon the treasury, to pay 
more than three millions under the British and French 
conventions, and to advance in redeeming the funded debt. 
Mr. Jefferson's fifth message was delivered on the third 
of December, 1805 — the first session of congress after his 
re-election. He begins with noticing the yellow fever 
which had prevailed in two of our cities ; and then states 
that the aspect of our foreign relations had considerably 
changed, our coasts had been infested by private armed 
vessels, some without commissions and some with illegal 
commissions, with an account of the mischief they had 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 247 

done, and that he had found it necessary to equip a force 
to cruise within our own seas ; that public armed ships 
had also been hovering on our coasts under color of seek- 
ing enemies, to the great annoyance of our commerce ; 
that with Spain our negotiations for a settlement of differ- 
ences had not had a satisfactory issue ; that in conse- 
quence of the seizure of our citizens and the plunder of 
their property, he had ordered our troops on that frontier 
to be in readiness to proteci them, and to repel by arms 
any similar aggressions in future ; that in reviewing these 
injuries, the moderation, firmness and wisdom of the legis- 
lature will be all called into action, but should any nation 
deceive itself by false calculations, we must join in the un- 
profitable contest of trying which party can do the other 
the most harm ; that the first object would be to place our 
sea-port towns out of the danger of insult, for which pur- 
pose measures had been taken for furnishing them with 
heavy cannon, and to aid them it was desirable that we 
should have a competent number of gun-boats ; that con- 
siderable provision had been made in materials for building 
seventy-four gun ships ; that an immediate prohibition of 
the exportation of arms and ammunition would be submitted 
to congress ; that our fellow-citizens who w^ere stranded 
on the coast of Tripoli had been liberated ; that although 
there were still some misunderstandings with Tunis, that 
friendly discussions with their ambassador, just arrived, 
could not fail of dissipating them. He then alludes to the 
law providing the naval peace establishment, fixing the 
number of frigates and complement of tnen, and suggests 
his views on the subject; states that our Indian neighbors 
are advancing in the pursuits of agriculture and household 
manufacture, and that purchases of land had been made of 
various tribes in Ohio and elsewhere, and that the treaties 
would be laid before congress ; that deputations of Indians 



248 THE CHARACTER OF 

from Missouri, and other places beyond the Mississippi, 
had come to the seat of government ; that the receipts of 
the treasury for the year were more than thirteen millions 
of dollars ; that congress had, in November, 1803, Author- 
ized a loan of one million seven hundred and fifty thou- 
sand dollars, which had not been taken up. 

Mr. Jefferson's sixth annual message was delivered on 
the second of December, 1806. It commences with a re- 
view of foreign relations, which were in an unsettled con- 
dition, and particularly the state of things on the south- 
western border, between Louisiana and the Mexican terri- 
tories. It then states that, in another part of the United 
States, private individuals were arming and organizing 
themselves, contrary to law, to carry on a military expedi- 
tion against the territories of Spain, that he had taken 
measures, by proclamation and by special orders, to sup- 
press the enterprise and to arrest and bring to justice its 
authors and abettors, and that the necessity of enlarging 
the regular force will be a subject for the early considera- 
tion of congress ; that the possession of both banks of the 
Mississippi rendered it necessary to provide a more ade- 
quate security for that point ; that the gun-boats author- 
ized at the last session will be ready for service in the 
spring, and a much larger number will be wanted ; that a 
further appropriation will be necessary for repairing ex- 
isting fortifications and erecting other works to obstruct an 
enemy in approaching our sea-ports ; that though the laws 
have provided punishments for the crimes of insurrection 
and enterprise on the public peace, it is suggested that it 
might be salutary to give the means of preventing them, and 
it might be useful to give the power to prevent those 
against the United States, as well as against a foreign nar 
tion, and that " the process of binding to the observance of 
the peace and good behavior, could it be extended to acts 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 249 

done out of the jurisdiction of the United States, would be 
effectual in some cases, where the offender is able to keep 
out of sight every indication of his purpose which could 
draw on hireT the exercise of the powers now given by 
law ; " that the states of Barbary seem generally disposed 
to respect our peace and friendship ; that proofs are re- 
ceived of the growing attachment of our Indian neighbors, 
and of their disposition to place all their interests under 
our patronage; that the expedition of Messrs. Lewis and 
Clark, for exploring the river Missouri, had been attended 
with all the success that could have been expected ; that 
the attempt to explore the Red river had not been equally 
successful ; that useful additions had been made to our 
knowledge of the Mississippi by lieutenant Pike, who had 
ascended to its source. It recommends measures for sup- 
pressing the slave trade as soon as the constitutional period 
arrives, and gives the amount of receipts at the treasury; 
states that the duties composing the Mediterranean fund 
would cease at the end of the year, and recommends their 
continuance for a short time ; that before long there will 
be a surplus revenue, and suggests the appropriation of it 
to public improvements as an expedient mode of disposing 
of it; and closes with a suggestion of a national establish- 
ment for education. 

Mr. Jefferson's seventh annual message was delivered 
on the 27th of October, 1807. It commences with remarks 
on the difference between the United States and Great 
Britain, and the pains that had been taken on our part to 
have them adjusted, and then adverts to the attack on the 
frigate Chesapeake, and the orders that had been des- 
patched to our minister in London to demand redress. 
It then states, that an order had been issued by the British 
government, interdicting all trade by neutrals between ports 
not in amity with them ; that our differences with Spain re- 



250 THE CHARACTER OF 

mained unsettled ; that with the other European nations 
our harmony was undisturbed ; that peace with the Barbary 
states appeared as firm as at any former period ; that among 
our Indian neighbors in the north-western quartfer, some 
fermentation was observed, threatening the continuance of 
peace ; that the great tribes on our south-western quarter 
appeared tranquil ; it states the manner in which the ap- 
propriations ^for fortifications had been applied, and to 
what places the gun-boats had been assigned, and suggests 
the idea that the seamen of the United States may be for- 
med into a special militia; that the moment our peace was 
threatened, he deemed it indispensable to secure a greater 
provision of those military stores with which our maga- 
zines w^ere not sufficiently furnished ; that whether a regu- 
lar army was to be raised, must depend on information ex- 
pected to be received ; and in the meantime, he had called 
upon the states for quotas of militia to be in readiness ; that 
the enterprises against the public peace which were believ- 
ed to be in preparation by Aaron Burr and his associates, 
had been happily defeated ; that he shall lay before congress 
the proceedings and the evidence exhibited against the prin- 
cipal offenders at the district court of Virginia, that they 
might judge whether the defect was in the testimony, in 
the law or in the administration of the law ; that a state- 
ment of the receipts and expenditures w^ould be thereafter 
transmitted ; and makes some remarks upon the disposition 
of the surplus revenue. 

Mr. Jefferson's eio^hth annual message \vas delivered 
November 8, 1808. It commences with a statement of 
the situation of our affairs in relation to the belligerent 
powers of Europe, and says, that the documents on the 
subject of foreign edicts will be laid before congress. It 
then states, that the affair of the Chesapeake had not been 
adjusted; that things with the other powers of Europe 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 251 

and with the Barbary states, with the exception of Algiers, 
remained as they were ; that with the Indians we were at 
peace. It then alludes to the manner of laying out the 
appropriations for fortifications ; that only one hundred and 
three gun-boats had been built during the year ; that under 
the act of the preceding session for raising an additional 
military force, the officers had been appointed for the pur- 
poses of the recruiting service ; that it had not been thought 
necessary to call for detachments or volunteers under the 
laws for that purpose ; that it was incumbent on congress, 
at every session, to revise the condition of the militia; that 
arms were manufacturing upon a larger scale than before ; 
that the suspension of our foreign commerce had impelled 
us to apply a portion of our industry and capital to inter- 
nal' manufactures and improvements, and there was little 
doubt the establishments formed for that purpose would be- 
come permanent ; that the accounts of receipts and expen- 
ditures were not made up, but would be sent in thereafter; 
and then it closes with his taking final leave of the gov- 
ernment. 

The foregoing abstracts exhibit a summary view of Mr. 
Jefierson's annual communications to congress, during the 
whole period of his administration. The constitution re- 
quired of him, from time to time, to give to congress in- 
formation of the state of the Union, and to " recommeyid to 
their co7isideration such measures as he should think neces- 
sary and expedient.''' It is therefore to be taken for grant- 
ed, that he gave all the information, and recommended all 
the measures for their adoption, which he supposed the 
exigencies of the country required. Here, then, must we 
look for the evidence of his talents as a statesman, as well 
as for his knowledge of the provisions and principles of the 
constitution. It may therefore with propriety be asked, 
what is the amount of proof which his official communi- 
cations contain of either the one or the other? 



252 THE CHARACTER OF 

Mr. JefTerson, as has been shown, was constantly in the 
practice of calling those who formed the constitution, and 
controlled the affairs of the nation for the first twelve 
years under it, monarchists. He accused them of wish- 
ing ultimately to transform our system of republicanism 
into the model of the English government — he called his 
own election a revolution, as real in the principles of the 
government, as that of 1776 was in its form — and he de- 
nominates the controversy he was carrying on against the 
federalists, a war ad internecionem. It would be a very 
extraordinary thing, if all this was intended merely for 
electioneering, and designed only for the promotion of his 
personal popularity. To ascertain the truth on this sub- 
ject, resort must be had to his official life, and an exami- 
nation must be made into his ofiicial acts and conduct. If 
his predecessors in office, and those by whom they were 
assisted in managing the public concerns, had been en- 
gaged for twelve years in attempting to change the char- 
acter of our government from republicanism to monarchy, 
with the design ultimately of transforming it into a sys- 
tem like that of Great Britain, that is, into a hereditary 
monarchy, it is not to be believed that there would not 
something have remained, when their oversight of the 
public affars was ended, some act or measure which would 
at least give plausibility to such a charge. But evidence 
of this description is sought for in vain throughout the 
whole extent of Mr. Jefferson's annual communications to 
congress. No act under the preceding administrations is 
mentioned or alluded to as having had even a^ monarchical 
tendency, nor is any recommendation contained in any of 
them intended for the purpose of counteracting their ulti- 
mate object. The repeal of no measure, adopted during 
the twelve first years of the government, is recommended, 
or suggested, on this specific charge of its being of a mo- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 253 

narchical, or even of an anti-republican charactei'. On the 
contrary, the great measures adopted under the federal ad- 
ministrations, and particularly under that of general Wash- 
ington, were continued and relied upon for the promotion 
of the " general welfare," during Mr. Jefferson's adminis- 
tration, as they had been while his predecessors were in 
office. And what is worthy of particular notice, not a sin- 
gle great measure of general national policy was adopted 
under his administration, nor was any such measure even 
recommended by him ; and when he left the government, 
at the close of the eight years of his administration, it is 
believed that not a single act of the kind here alluded to, 
originating with him, was to be found in the national 
statute book. He did indeed recommend the system of 
naval defence of our sea-ports and harbors by gun-boats, 
and the scheme of preserving our ships of war from decay 
by laying them up in dry docks. The first was adopted 
amidst the sneers and ridicule of the community, and was 
kept up until there was some symptom of danger, when 
they speedily passed out of use as entirely worthless for 
the purpose for which they were built, and almost as 
speedily out of mind ; and for many years, nobody men- 
tions, or even thinks of them, as having had an existence. 
The dry dock project was still more unfortunate. " It fell 
dead from the press ; " the country believing that ships 
were made to float and not to be hauled up and sheltered ; 
and, of course, this second favorite project was never car- 
ried into effect. 

That Mr. Jefferson was a firm, and it may be said, an 
enthusiastic believer in the efficacy of the plan of gun-boat 
defence, may be proved by the following letter to Mr. 
Nicholson, a member of congress. It is dated January 
29, 1S05, and is to be found in the 4th volume of his 
works, page 28. 
22 



254 THE CHARACTER OF 

" Mr. Eppes has this moment put into my hands your 
letter of yesterday, asking information on the subject of the 
gun-boats proposed to be buih. I lose no time in comrnu- 
nicating to you fully my whole views respecting them, 
premising a few words on the system of fortifications. 
Considering the harbors which, from their situation and 
importance, are entitled to defence, and the estimates we 
have seen of the fortifications planned for some of them, 
this system cannot be completed on a moderate scale for 
less than fifty millions of dollars, nor manned in time of 
war with less than fifty thousand men, and in peace two 
thousand. And when done, they avail little ; because all 
military men agree, that wherever a vessel may pass a fort 
without tacking under her guns, which is the case at all 
our sea-port towns, she may be annoyed more or less, ac- 
cording to the advantages of the position, but can never 
be prevented. Our own experience during the war proved 
this on different occasions. Our predecessors have, never- 
theless, proposed to go into this system, and had com- 
menced it. But no law requiring us to proceed, we have 
suspended it. 

" If we cannot hinder vessels from entering our harbors, 
we should turn our attention to the putting it out of their 
power to lie, or come to, before a town to injure it. Two 
means of doing this may be adopted in aid of each other. 
1. Heavy cannon on traveling carriages, which may be 
moved to any point on the bank or beach most convenient 
for dislodging the vessel. A sufficient number of these 
should be lent to each sea-port town, and their militia 
trained to them. The executive is authorized to do this ; 
it has been done in a smaller degree, and will now be done 
more competently. 

" 2. Having cannon on floating batteries or boats, which 
may be so stationed as to prevent a vessel entering the 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 255 

fiarbor, or force her after entering to depart. There are 
about fifteen harbors in the United States which ought to 
be in a state of substantial defence. The whole of these 
would require, according to the best opinions, two hundred 
and forty gun-boats. Their cost was estimated by captain 
Rogers at two thousand dollars each. But we had better 
say four thousand dollars. The whole would cost one 
million of dollars. But we should allow ours€lves ten 
years to complete it, unless circumstances should force it 
sooner. There are three situations in which the gun-boats 
may be. 1. Hauled up under a shed, in readiness to be 
launched and manned by the seamen and militia of the 
town on short notice. In this situation she costs nothing 
but an enclosure, or a sentinel to see that no mischief is 
done to her. 2. Afloat, and with men enough to navigate 
her in harbor and take care of her, but depending on re- 
ceiving her crew from the town on short warning. In 
this situation, her annual expense is about two thousand 
dollars, as by an official estimate at the end of this letter. 
3. Fully manned for action. Her annual expense in this 
situation is about eight thousand dollars, as per estimate 
subjoined. When there is general peace, we should prob- 
ably keep about six or seven afloat in the second situa- 
tion ; their annual expense twelve to fourteen thousand 
dollars; the rest all hauled up. When France and Eng- 
land are at war, we should keep at the utmost twenty-five 
in the second situation, their annual expense fifty thousand 
dollars. When we should be at war ourselves, some of 
them would probably be kept in the third situation, at an 
annual expense of eight thousand dollars ; but how many, 
rnust depend on the circumstances of the war. We now 
possess ten, built and building. It is the opinion of those 
consulted, that fifteen more would enable us to put every 
harbor under our view in a respectable condition ; and that 



256 THE CHARACTER OF 

this should limit the views of the present year. This 
would require an appropriation of sixty thousand dollars, 
and I suppose that the best way of limiting it, without de- 
claring the number, as perhaps that sum would buildmore. 
I should think it best not to give a detailed report, which 
exposes our policy too much. A bill, with verbal explana- 
tions, will suffice for the information of the house." 

Who can believe, or be persuaded to indulge the idea 
for a moment, that a man whose mind was occupied and 
influenced by such visionary and childish whims as these, 
possessed the knowledge or had the enlarged views of an 
able and enlightened statesman ? Instead of which, he is 
found constantly brooding over idle and useless projects, 
and under the pretence of economy, consulting his own 
popularity and furthering his own schemes of personal ag- 
grandizement. 

Nothing could have been more characteristic of this 
" great statesman," than the caution at the close of this 
letter against a detailed report, as that might expose our 
'policy too much. A bill, with verbal explanations, would 
be sufficient for the information of the house. The house 
were the body from which the committee, to whose chair- 
man this letter was addressed, proceeded. On the report 
of that committee, the house of course must rely for infor- 
mation, and would be called to act. Mr. Jefferson's great 
plan of political operations was to appeal, on all occasions, 
to the sound common sense, the stern republican integrity, 
and the pure spirit of patriotism in the people. One would 
naturally suppose, that he would have at least as much 
confidence in the representatives of the people, especially 
as the majority of them were in his favor, as he had in the 
people themselves. But in this case he was unwilling to 
have a detailed report on the merits of his gun-boat project 
placed before the representatives, lest it should expose his 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 257 

policy too much. A verbal report, which but few would 
comprehend, and none would be able to carry away, or 
scan with too much strictness and severity, would be 
sufficient for the house. The truth undoubtedly was, that 
the plan was a subject of ridicule even among his friends 
and partizans, and of contempt among his opponents ; and 
he wished to avoid, as far as possible, not merely the ex- 
posure of his policy to the house and to the world, but to 
escape the sneers and strictures of those who viewed the 
system as ridiculous in the extreme. 

The letter from which the foregoing extract was made, 
was dated, it will be observed, in January, 1805. In May, 
1809, a committee w^as appointed by the senate, to inquire 
whether it was expedient, at that time, to make any modi- 
fications of the laws relating to the army and navy of the 
United States. That committee directed their chairman 
to put, among others, the following questions to the secre- 
tary of the navy — 

" How many gun-boats have been built under the exist- 
ing laws ? 

" What has been the average or aggregate cost of build- 
ing them ? 

" What will be the probable state of those gun-boats at 
the end of one year, which may be laid up unemployed J 

" What will be the probable state of those at the end of 
one year, which may be kept in service, on the coasts or 
in the harbors ?" 

To these inquiries the secretary replied on the 9th of 
June— 

" There have been built under the existing laws, one 
hundred and seventy-six gun-boats and bombs ; and the 
average cost of building them maybe calculated at $9,000. 

" As to the probable state of those boats at the end of one 
year, which may be laid up, or unemployed, I will observe 
22^ 



258 THE CHARACTER OF 

that with all the care that can be taken of them, they will 
unavoidably decay in a greater or less degree ; those built 
of green, will of course decay much sooner than those 
built of seasoned timber. To keep a gun-boat in a state 
of preparation for service, we shall very frequently be sub- 
jected to the expense of repairing her ; an expense to an 
amount which cannot be foreseen. The sails and stand- 
ing and running rigging, at present belonging to those laid 
up, will, probably, at the end of one year, be so much in- 
jured as to be unfit for use ; their small boats and water- 
casks, unless well protected from the rain and sun, will 
sustain considerable injury in the course of the same time ; 
and they cannot be so protected without expense. If a gun- 
boat is suffered to lie in port for one year, without giving 
her any kind of repair, she will probably be found at the 
expiration of that year wholly unworthy of being repaired. 

" With respect to those kept in service, they also will 
decay, if not occasionally repaired ; though it is observed 
by professional men, that vessels in service, especially in 
salt water, are less subject to decay than they are lying 
in port, and universal experience does, I believe, sanction 
the same idea." 

Mr. Jefferson's administration closed on the 3d of March, 
1809. It is very apparent that up to that time he had 
lost none of his attachment to, or confidence in, the gun- 
boat system. In his last annual message to congress, 
which was in December, 1808, he says, " Of the gun-boats 
authorized by the act of December last, it has been thought 
necessary to build only one hundred and three in the pres- 
ent year. These with those before possessed, are sufH- 
•xient for the harbors and waters most exposed, and the res- 
idue will require little time for their construction when it 
shall be deemed necessary." At the end of three months 
from the time he left the office of president, and under the 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 259 

new administration, at the head of which was his most in- 
timate, most confidential, and most devoted friend, Mr. 
Madison, the scheme appears to have been abandoned, as 
little better than worthless ; and from that time forward it 
sunk into contempt. 

Mr. Jefferson was very fond of indulging in visionary 
and whimsical speculations, not merely in mechanical and 
agricultural affairs, but in the science of politics and the 
concerns of government. His gun-boat project, one of 
the most useless and absurd of all his vagaries, was a 
favorite scheme with him ; and he led the government in- 
to a heavy expense to construct these vessels, which pro- 
ved to be, what every man of practical good sense knew 
they must be, of no use whatever. Who, at the present 
time, can entertain a doubt, that he was grossly deficient 
in the practical qualifications of a great statesman ? 

Mr. Jefferson, in his letter to Martin Van Buren, which 
has been already noticed in this work, when alluding to 
the coolness produced between him and general Washing- 
ton by the appearance of the letter to Mazzei, says, " My 
last parting with general Washington was at the inaugura- 
tion of Mr. Adams, in March, 1797, and was warmly af- 
fectionate ; and I never had any reason to believe any 
change on his part, as there certainly was none on mine." 
The following facts may serve to shew what credit is due 
to this last assertion. 

In volume 11 of ^^the Writings of George Washing- 
ton^^'' published in 1836, by Jared Sparks, at page 501, 
there is an article headed thus, — "Anonymous letter 
to George Washington, signed with the fictitious name of 
John Langhorne." A note annexed to it is in the follow- 
ing words : — " As this letter is signed with a fictitious 
name, it is of no other importance than to show what in- 
sidious means were adopted by the enemies of Washing- 



260 THE CHARACTER OF 

ton to lead him into a snare for party purposes. The per- 
son who sent for his answer to the post office was known ; 
but whether he was the writer of this letter, or only acted 
as an agent in this business, was not ascertained." Lang- 
horne's letter was dated " Warren, Albermarle county, 
Sept. 25, 1797." The letter to Mazzei was first published 
in this country in the spring of 1797 — a few months before 
the date of Langhorne's letter. General Washington's an- 
swer to the latter is dated Oct. 15, 1797. Although he 
was altogether unsuspicious that the Langhorne letter was 
fictitious, and intended to draw him into a correspondence 
from which his enemies might obtain something which 
they could use to injure his reputation and destroy his pop- 
ularity, he replied to it with that extreme caution which so 
strongly marked his character in every situation in life, 
and the plot entirely failed. The following is a letter 
from him to John Nicholas. 

" Mount Vernon, November 30, 1797. 
" I know not how to thank you sufficiently, for the kind 
intention of your obliging favor of the ISth instant. If 
the object of Mr. Langhorne, who to me in personal char- 
acter is an entire stranger, was such as you suspect, it will 
appear from my answer to his letter that he fell far short 
of his mark. But as the writer of it seems to be better 
known to you, and that you may be the better enabled to 
form a more correct opinion of the design, I take the liber- 
ty of transmitting a copy of it along with the answer. If 
they should be a means of detecting any nefarious plan of 
those who are assailing the government in every shape 
that can be devised, I shall feel happy in having had it in 
my power to furnish them. If the case be otherwise, the 
papers may be committed to the flames, and the transac- 
tion buried in oblivion. To confess the truth, I consider- 
ed Mr. Langhorne in my " mind's eye " a pedant, who 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 261 

was desirous of displaying the flowers of his pen. In ei- 
ther case, I would thank you for the result of the investi- 
gation." 

On the 8th of March, 1798, General Washington wrote 
a letter to Mr. Nicholas, of which the following is an ex- 
tract — 

" The letter which you did me the favor of writing to 
me under date of the 22d ult., came safe to hand. Noth- 
ing short of the evidence you have adduced, corroborative 
of intimations which I had received long before through 
another channel, could have shaken my belief in the sin- 
cerity of a friendship which 1 had conceived was "possessed 
for me by the person to whom you allude. But attempts 
to injure those who are supposed to stand well in the es- 
timation of the people, and are stumbling-blocks in the 
way, by misrepresenting their political tenets, thereby to 
destroy all confidence in them, are among the means by 
which the government is to be assailed, and the constitu- 
tion destroyed. The conduct of this party is systematized ; 
and everything that is opposed to its execution will be 
sacrificed without hesitation or remorse, if the end can be 
answered by it. 

" If the person whom you suspect was really the author 
of the letter under the signature of John Langhorne, it is 
not at all surprising to me that the correspondence should 
have ended where it did ; for the penetration of that man 
would have perceived by the first glance at the answer 
that nothing was to be drawn from that mode of attack. 
In what form the next insidious attempts may appear re- 
mains to be discovered. But as the attempts to explain 
away the constitution and weaken the government are 
now become so open, and the desire of placing the affairs 
of this country under the influence and control of a for- 
eign nation is so apparent and strong, it is hardly to be ex- 



262 THE CHARACTER OF 

pected that a resort to covert means to effect these objects 
will be longer regarded." 

The person alluded to as the object of Mr. Nicholas's 
suspicion in the foregoing letter, is said in a note to have 
been Mr. Jefferson. 

The following is an extract from a letter from general 
Washington to Bushrod Washington, dated August 12, 
1798— 

" I have received your letter of the 7th inst., giving an 
extract of Mr. Nicholas's letter to you. With respect to 
the request contained in it, I leave the matter entirely to 
his own discretion, with your advice to advance or halt, 
according to the tenableness of his ground and circum- 
stances. 

" If he could prove indubitably that the letter addressed 
to me with the signature of Joh7i Langhorne was a forge- 
ry, no doubt would remain in the mind of any one that it 
was written with a view to effect some nefarious purpose. 
And if the person he suspects is the real author or abettor, 
it would be a pity not to expose him to public execration 
for attempting^ in so dishonorable a way, to obtain a dis- 
closure of sentiments of which some advantage could be 
taken.'''' (Washington's Writings, vol. 2, page 289.) 

It is much to be regretted that Mr. Sparks did not pub- 
lish Mr. Nicholas's letter to general Washington on this 
subject, as it undoubtedly contained the reasons why he 
suspected the Langhorne letter was written by Mr. Jeffer- 
son himself, or by some other person with his knowledge 
or connivance and for his own purposes. It is stated that 
the person who called at the post-office for general Wash- 
ington's answer was known ; but it is said not to have 
been ascertained whether he acted as principal or agent. 
The letter from Langhorne bears date at Warren, Albe- 
marle county, which was the county in which Mr. Jeffer- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 263 

son resided. General Washington's feelings must have 
been highly excited, knowing as he did that Mr. Nicholas 
believed Mr. Jefferson to have been the author of that 
letter, vi^hen he said, " If the person he suspects is the real 
author or abettor, it would be a pity not to expose him to 
public execration for attempting^ in so dishonorable a way, 
to obtain a disclosure of sentime7its of which some advan- 
tage might be taken." 

Enough, however, is disclosed in these letters to show 
that the cordiality of friendship, which for a long time 
general Washington entertained for Mr. Jefferson, did not 
hold out to the end of his life ; and to satisfy any reason- 
able mind that Mr. Jefferson was the secret- and deadly 
enemy of General Washington, and made use of all the 
means within his power to undermine his popularity and 
destroy his reputation. Mr. Jefferson himself acknowl- 
edges, in a passage already quoted from his Ana, that 
general Washington's feelings had become alienated from 
him personally, as well as from the republicans generally. 



264 THE CHARACTER OF 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Mr. Jefferson's feelings on his return from France in 1789 — Found 
here a preference for kingly government prevalent— Mr. Jef- 
ferson an ambitious man — Called himself a republican and his 
opponents monarchists — Monarchy talked of at dinner parties — 
Attacks upon Hamilton — Asserts that Hamilton introduced a 
draft of a constitution to the convention for a monarchy — Letter 
from Hamilton to T. Pickering on his proposition for a constitu- 
tion — No monarchical feature in it — The charge of monarchical 
principles in the federalists traced by Jefferson to the conven- 
tions of 1786 and 1787 — Judge Marshall's notice of the conven- 
tion of 1787 — Names of some of the principal members of that 
body — Mr. Jefferson's artful manner of establishing his claim 
to a republican character — Letter to R. M. Johnson — Conversa- 
tion with general "Washington— Character of the early federal- 
ists — Great courage necessary to attempt the destruction of gen- 
eral Washington's character. 

Having, as has been seen, devised his general plan for 
the formation of his party, almost immediately after his 
return to the United States in 1789, and upon entering 
upon the duties of the office of secretary of state, Mr. Jef- 
ferson, by his own account, began to carry it into execu- 
tion in good earnest. " I returned," says he, " from that 
mission in the first year of the new government, having 
landed in Virginia in December, 1789, and proceeded to 
New York in March, 1790, to enter on the office of secre- 
tary of state. Here certainly I found a state of things 
which, of all I had ever contemplated, I the least expected. 
I had left France in the first year of her revolution, in the 
fervor of natural rights and zeal for reformation. My 
conscientious devotion to these rights could not be height- 



TPHOMAS JEFFERSON. 265 

■ened, but it had been aroused and excited by daily exer- 
cise. The president received me cordially, and my col- 
leagues and the circle of principal citizens apparently with 
welcome. The courtesies of dinner-parties given me, as 
a stranger newly arrived among them, placed me at once 
in their familiar society. But I cannot describe the won- 
der and mortification with which the table conversation 
filled me. Politics were the chief topic, and a preference 
of kingly over republican government was evidently the 
favorite sentiment. An apostate I could not be, nor yet a 
hypocrite ; and I found myself, for the most part, the only 
advocate on the republican side of the question, unless 
among the guests there chanced to be some member of 
that party from the legislative houses. Hamilton's finan- 
cial system had then passed. It had two objects; 1. As 
a puzzle to exclude popular understanding and inquiry ; 
2. As a machine for the corruption of the legislature ; for 
he avowed the opinion that man could be governed by one 
of two motives only — force or interest ; force, he observed, 
in this country was out of the question, and the interests, 
therefore, of the members must be laid hold of to keep the 
legislature in unison with the executive." 

Notwithstanding a constant aflfectation of humility, a 
disposition to avoid office, and the frequent declaration of 
a wish to retire to private life, probably there was not a 
more ambitious man within the compass of the Union^ 
His objections to the constitution at a very early period 
had so far vanished that he manifested no serious objec- 
tion to being placed, or to use his own expression in his 
letter to the New Haven merchants, to place himself at 
the head of the government. Even his apprehensions of 
danger from the re-eligibility of the president, and his ar- 
dent attachment to his lucerne, his potatoes, and his grand- 
children, did not deter him from suffering himself to be 
23 



266 THE CHARACTER OF 

elected the second time. To prosecute his ambitious pur- 
poses with the greater prospect of success, he set himself 
up as the head of a party ; not willing to becalled an anti- 
federalist, he dubbed himself a republican, branded his op- 
ponents as monarchists, and commenced his career in elec- 
tioneering and intrigue almost immediately upon landing 
in the country from his mission to France. His outset on 
that career is described in the passage above quoted from 
his ''Ana.'' His success will appear in the future account 
of his rise to the highest station under the constitution, and 
in the course and character of his administration of the 
government. 

By Mr. Jefferson's statement, in the quotation just made, 
such progess had the monarchical spirit made among the 
people of this country, and especially at the seat of gov- 
ernment, that immediately after the organization of the 
new government, and at dinner parties to which he was in- 
vited in the city of New York, politics were the chief 
topic of conversation at table, in which a preference of 
kingly over republican government was evidently the fa- 
vorite sentiment; and as he could not be either an apos- 
tate or a hypocrite, he found himself, for the most part, the 
only advocate on the republican side of the question, un- 
less there happened to be among the guests a member of 
that party from the legislative houses — meaning the two 
houses of congress. This representation is certainly inten- 
ded to convey the idea, that a great proportion of that class 
of the inhabitants of that city, who attended dinner-par- 
ties which were given to him, (he being an open, avowed 
republican according to his own account,) were in favor of 
changing the government of this country, even before an 
experiment had been made of the new republican system, 
into a monarchy ; and this sentiment, so odious to the peo- 
ple of the United States, according to this account, was 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 267 

the subject of common, familiar, undisguised conversa- 
tion, in mixed companies, and on convivial occasions ! Is 
there any man, even of ordinary understanding, who is 
credulous enough to believe this? It will constantly be 
borne in mind, that this account was niade up, and prepar- 
ed for posterity, in the year 1818, at the very time Mr. 
Jefferson was providing materials for the use of future gen- 
erations, when they should look back to the early history 
of their country and its government, for the purpose of 
forming an estimate of the characters of the men who had 
made a conspicuous figure in its early annals. 

No part of this personal record is more remarkable, than 
the attempt to stigmatize the reputation of Alexander Ham- 
ilton — the man of all others who he appears to have con- 
sidered as standing the most directly in his way, and there- 
fore the more necessary to be removed. 

Accordingly, Mr. Jefferson took frequent opportunities 
to attack his principles, as being not only opposed to repub- 
licanism, but as being monarchical in an ultra degree — that 
is, contending that a monarchy founded upon the principle 
of corruption was the best and most practicable system 
of government. In a passage already quoted from the 
"7l72a;"Mr. Jefferson asserts, that Hamilton's financial 
system had two objects in view — 1. It was intended to be 
" a puzzle to exclude popular understanding and inquiry ; 
2, ^0 he a machine for corrupting the legislature. And," 
he adds, " with grief and shame it must be acknowledged 
that his machine was not without effect ; that even in this, 
the birth of our government, some members were found 
sordid enough to bend their duty to their interests, and to 
look after personal, rather than public good." A more un- 
founded, and of course a more malicious slander was prob- 
ably never uttered. Designating nobody, the charge is 
made in such general terms, that it may with equal pro- 



268 THE CHARACTER OF 

priety be applied, as the imagination of different individu- 
als may lead them, to all the members of congress who 
were in favor of the adoption of general Hamilton's finan- 
cial plan — or in other words, to the federal members of 
both houses of congress. Pursuing his system of slander, 
he in the first place attempts to establish the charge of mo- 
narchical principles against general Hamilton, and then 
transfers it to the principal federalists through the country. 
But Mr. Jefferson not only accused general Hamilton of 
being a monarchist in principle, but he asserts that he ac- 
tually introduced to the convention of 1787, the draft of a 
constitution for the establishment of a monarchical govern- 
ment over the United States. This charge was often 
made against tliat gentleman when he belonged to general 
Washington's cabinet, and was circulated, with great zeal, 
assiduity and confidence, throughout the country, for the 
purpose of rendering him unpopular, for the purpose of 
destroying his influence. The imputation of entertaining 
monarchical principles, and of secretly or openly plotting 
to overthrow the republican system, and to substitute a 
monarchy in its place, was the basis of Mr. Jefferson's 
electioneering against the federalists, and of his intrigues 
to place himself at the head of the government. In this 
he acted with his usual address, and with the success 
which customarily attended his exertions to depress his 
opponents, and to elevate himself. It is, however, a remark- 
able fact in the history of this country, and one not very 
creditable to the political integrity and virtue of the people 
of this republic, that a man who had as much, and per- 
haps more agency in forming the constitution, and procur- 
ing its adoption than any individual in the Union, should 
be deprived of the popularity and influence which his dis- 
tinguished talents, his great services, and his unwearied 
efforts to promote the welfare and prosperity of the coun- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 269 

try, justly entitled him to, and this by a man who had no 
agency in the formation or adoption of the constitution, 
but who, on a variety of grounds, was decidedly opposed 
to it. 

That the charge was without foundation, wmII appear by 
the following document, furnished by general Hamilton to 
his fri'^i; ; Timothy Pickering ; and by the latter, published 
to the world as a refutation of Mr, Jefferson's oft repeated 
charge against the writer of the letter. 

Letter from Alexander Hamilton to Timothy Pickering. 
" New York, September 16, 1803. 

" My dear sir — I will make no apology for my delay 
in answering your inquiry some time since made, because 
I could offer none which would satisfy myself. I pray 
you only to believe that it proceeded from anything rather 
than want of respect or regard. I shall now comply with 
your request. 

" The highest toned propositions which I made in the 
convention, were for a president, senate and judges during 
good behavior — a house of representatives for three years. 
Though I would have enlarged the legislative power of 
the general government, yet I never contemplated the abo- 
lition of the state governments; but, on the contrary, they 
were, in some particulars, constituent parts of my plan. 

" This plan was in my conception conformable with the 
strict theory of a government purely republican ; the es- 
sential criteria of which are, that the principal organs of 
the executive and legislative departments be elected by the 
people, and hold their offices by a responsible and tempo- 
rary defeasible tenure. 

" A vote was taken on the proposition respecting the 
executive. Five states were in favor of it ; among these 
Virginia; and though from the manner of voting, by dele- 
23=^ 



270 THE CHARACTER OF * 

gations, individuals were not distinguished, it was morally 
certain, from the known situation of the Virginia mem- 
bers, (six in number, two of them, Mason and Randolph, 
professing popular doctrines,) that Madison must have con- 
curred in the vote of Virginia. Thus, if I sinned against 
republicanism, Mr. Madison was not less guilty. 

" may truly then say, that I never proposed either a 
president or senate for life ; and that I neither recommend- 
ed nor meditated the annihilation of the state govern- 
ments. 

" And I may add, that in the course of the discussions 
in the convention, neither the propositions thrown out for 
debate, nor even those voted in the earlier stages of delib- 
eration, were considered as evidences of a definitive opin- 
ion in the proposer or voter. It appeared to me to be in 
some sort understood, that with a view to free investiga- 
tion, experimental propositions might be made, which were 
to be received merely as suggestions for consideration. 

" Accordingly it is a fact, that my final opinion was 
against an executive during good behavior, on account of 
the increased danger to the public tranquillity incident to 
the election of a magistrate of this degree of permanency. 
In the plan of the constitution which I drew up while the 
convention was sitting, and which I communicated to Mr. 
Madison about the close of it, perhaps a day or two after, 
the office of president has no greater duration than for 
three years. 

" This plan was predicated upon these bases. 1. That 
the political principles of the people of this country would 
endure nothing but republican governments. 2. That in 
the actual situation of the country, it was in itself right 
and proper that the republican theory should have a fair 
and full trial. 3. That to such a trial it was essential that 
the government should be so constructed as to give it all 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 271 

the energy and stability reconcilable with the principles of 
that theory. 

" These were the genuine sentiments of my heart, and 
upon them I acted. 

" I sincerely hope that it may not hereafter be discover- 
ed, that through want of sufficient attention to the last idea, 
the experiment of republican government, even in this 
country, has not been as complete, as satisfactory, and as 
decisive as could be wished. 

Very truly, dear sir, your friend and servant, 

A. Hamilton, 

Timothy Pickering, Esq." 

This letter, containing the explanation of general Ham- 
ilton's views on the general subject, is marked by the open, 
manly frankness which formed a striking trait it his char- 
acter. No man ever lived whose mind was more perfect- 
ly free from dissimulation and artifice, no man ever de- 
spised cunning and hypocrisy more thoroughly and abso- 
lutely than general Hamilton. There is but little danger 
of mistake in saying, that he never kept a secret record of 
private conversations, and still less in expressing the opin- 
ion, that he never sat down deliberately to collect materials^ 
and reduce them to writing, in the shape of "-47ia," for the 
purpose of elevating his own character, or slandering the rep- 
utations of others. Nothing could have been more natural, 
and certainly nothing could have been more proper or 
useful, than for any member of the convention to throw out 
topics for examination and discussion, for in no other way 
could it have been expected that the sentiments of so large 
a body of men, and containing such a variety of characters, 
could ever have been ascertained, and eventually united in 
a general system of government — one that would meet the 
approbation of the whole. There would have been noth- 



272 THE CHARACTER OP 

ing more than this in the suggestion of general Hamilton, 
even if it had gone the length which Mr. Jefferson states 
it to have done. But it fell far short of that length. 
There was no monarchical feature in his suggestion. It 
related merely to the tenure of the offices of president, 
senators, and judges — it was thrown out for discussion ; 
and upon discussion, he became convinced that it would 
not answer, and accordingly relinquished it. To the pro- 
visions on these subjects which were finally adopted by the 
convention he gave his assent and signed the constitution ; 
and when it was submitted to the convention of his state, it 
was probably more owing to his exertions than to those of 
any other person, that ii was approved and adopted. Had 
the efforts of George Clinton, John Lansing, Jr., Melanc- 
thon Smith, and other zealous friends and partizans of Mr. 
Jefferson, succeeded in preventing its adoption by that 
powerful state, it is very doubtful whether the present 
national government would have ever been established. 
And yet, under the influence of Mr. Jefferson's opinions 
and example, he, and those of his partizans whose names 
have just been mentioned, who in the state of New York, 
exerted themselves to the utmost to prevent the adoption 
of the constitution, were hailed as republicans, and Alex- 
ander Hamilton was stigmatized and reviled as a mo- 
narchist and an enemy to republican freedom. 

This is believed to be a just and correct account of the 
origin and object of the charge of monarchical principles 
against the federalists. By Mr. Jefferson, it is traced back 
to the two conventions of 1786 and 1787. How far it was 
applicable to the former has been examined. There is 
every reason to believe it was equally unfounded when 
alleged against the latter. In the first place, the delegates 
to the convention of 1787, were appointed by the legisla- 
tures of the several states. They were men of the highest 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 273 

consideration in these states, well known for their attach- 
ment to their country, and highly esteemed in their sever- 
al communities for integrity, public spirit, and talents. 
Among them were men who had fought the battles of 
their country through the war of independence, and others 
whose wisdom, firmness, patriotism and virtue, had di- 
rected and animated the councils of the nation during that 
most interesting and trying period. In short, neither this 
country, nor any other, ever saw a more able, public spirit- 
ed, enlightened and dignified assembly. It requires strong- 
er evidence than Mr. Jeflferson's hearsay testimony, or even 
his own declaration, to make the world believe that there 
was a monarchical spirit, or even a single monarchist, in 
that august body. No other evidence of the fact has thus 
far appeared; and after the lapse of half a century, there 
is very little probability that it ever will appear. In his 
Life of Washington, when noticing this subject, chief jus- 
tice Marshall remarks — 

" On the great principles which should constitute the 
basis of their system, not much contrariety of opinion is 
understood to have prevailed. But on the various and in- 
tricate modifications of those principles, an equal degree 
of harmony was not to be expected. More than once, 
there was reason to fear that the rich harvest of national 
felicity, which had been anticipated from the ample stock 
of worth collected in the convention, would all be blasted 
by the rising of that body without effecting the object for 
which it was formed. At length the high importance 
which was attached to union triumphed over local inter- 
ests ; and on the 17th of September, that constitution 
which has been alike the theme of panegyric and invec- 
tive, was presented to the American world." 

Either the account which judge Marshall here gives of 
the state of opinion in the convention " on the great princi- 



274 THE CHARACTER OP 

pies which should constitute the basis of their system," is 
not correct, or Mr. Jefferson's charge against those mem- 
bers of it who formed what he called the same party who 
were in favor of monarchy in the convention at Aftnapo- 
lis, is entirely unfounded. He has not troubled himself so 
far as to give the names of those of whom this party was 
composed in either convention. If, however, they existed 
in the convention of 1787, the world will not readily be- 
lieve that they will be found among such men as George 
Washington, John Langdon, Rufus King, Roger Sherman, 
William Livingston, William Patterson, Benjamin Frank- 
lin, John Dickinson, James Madison, Jun., John Rutledge, 
and Charles Cotesworth Pinckney. These persons, with 
twenty-seven others, signed the constitution, and of course 
the whole thirty-eight must have been present during the 
session, witnessed the propositions made, the projects of- 
fered, and heard the discussions that occurred. And yet 
not one of them, as far as is known, has ever asserted the 
existence of a monarchical party in the convention, or of 
any effort to introduce or recommend any other than a re- 
publican system. Nor can any reasonable person believe 
that such a party, or such a plot, could have existed there, 
without its coming to the knowledge of some, at least, if 
not all the members of the convention; by some of whom 
the evidence of the fact would have been published to the 
country, without leaving a matter of so much importance 
to be brought out, after the lapse of thirty years, through 
such a questionable channel of communication as Mr. Jef- 
ferson's '■^Anay 

It has been seen, in the course of this work, in what a 
sly and artful manner Mr. Jefferson entered upon the task 
of establishing himself as the plain, simple-hearted, un- 
affected republican, and the equally sincere and devoted 
friend of republicanism. On this basis he erected the great 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 275 

fabric of his popularity, influence and power. At the same 
time, he strengthened his claim to these characteristics by- 
accusing those who were principally concerned in forming 
and adopting the constitution, and in organizing and estab- 
lishing the government, w^ith being monarchists. In his 
letter to Mazzei, which has been so often alluded to, and 
which bears date April 24, 1796, he alleges the existence 
of a monarchical party, and accuses the executive and ju- 
dicial branches of the government as being at that time 
the heads of it, and as opposed to the republicans — that is, 
himself and his friends. In a letter to Richard M. John- 
son, dated March 10, 1808, (vol. 4, 109,) he says, " I came 
to the government under circumstances calculated to gen- 
erate peculiar acrimony. I found all its offices in the pos- 
session of a political sect who wished to transform it ulti- 
mately into the shape of their darling model, the English 
government; and in the mean time to familiarize the pub- 
lic mind to the change, by administering it on English 
principles and in English forms." In the same volume, 
page 144, is a letter to governor Langdon, in which he 
says, " The toryism with which we struggled in 1777, dif- 
fered but in name from the federalism of 1799, with which 
we struggled also ; and the Anglicism of 1808, against 
which we are now struggling, is but the same thing still, 
in another form. It is a longing for a king, and an En- 
glish king, rather than any other." At page 182 of the 
same volume, is a letter to Mr. Melish, dated January 13, 
1813, in which he says, "Amidst this mass of approbation 
which is given to every other part of the work, there is a 
single sentiment which I cannot help wishing to bring to 
what I think the correct one ; and on a point so interesting, 
I value your opinion too highly not to ambition its concur- 
rence with my own. Stating in volume first, page sixty- 
third, the principle of difference between the two great po- 



276 "THE characteh of 

litical parties here, you conclude it to be, ' whether the con- 
trolling power shall be vested in this or that set of men.* 
That each party endeavors to get into the administration of 
the government, and to exclude the other from pdwer, is 
true, and may be stated as a motive of action : but this is 
only secondary ; the primary motive being a real and rad- 
ical difference of political principle. I sincerely wish our 
differences were but personally who should govern, and 
that the principles of our constitution were those of both 
parties. Unfortunately, it is otherwise; and the question 
of preference between monarchy and republicanism, which 
has so long divided mankind elsewhere, threatens a perma- 
nent division here." Again; In relating a conversation 
which he says he had with general Washington, in the 
year 1792, among other things, he says, " I told him, that 
though the people were sound, there were a numerous sect 
who had monarchy in contemplation ; that the secretary 
of the treasury was one of these. That I had heard him 
say that this constitution was a shilly-shally thing, of 
mere milk and water, which could not last, and was only 
good as a step to something better. That when we reflect- 
ed, that he had endeavored in the convention to make an 
English constitution of it, and when failing in that we saw 
all his measures tending to bring it to the same thing, it 
was natural for us to be jealous ; and particularly when we 
saw that these measures had established corruption in 
the legislature, where there was a squadron devoted to the 
nod of the treasury, doing whatever he had directed, and 
ready to do what he should direct." 

A thorough examination of the charge preferred by Mr. 
Jefferson against the federalists, of entertaining monarchi- 
cal principles and propensities, is a subject of deep inter- 
est and importance, and forms one of the great objects 
which the author had in view when he undertook the task 



fHOMAS JEFFERSON. 277 

of writing this work. He believed it an act of justice to 
the memories and characters of as virtuous, disinterest- 
ed and patriotic a body of men as ever existed in any 
country and under any form XDf government. It was much 
to be desired that it should have been performed by some 
abler hand ; and by no person more sincerely or anxiously 
than himself. Having given to their country the benefil 
of their services and talents, and having been calumniated 
by men of far inferior capacities, as well as moral worth, 
and rendered unpopular, and in many instances odious, to 
the people whom they had served with perfect integrity 
and disinterestedness — with talents rarely equalled^ and 
an exercise of perseverance, fidelity, and energy never ex- 
ceeded, they have a strong and well-founded claim upon 
their country for the justice due to their services and theiir 
reputations. Ingratitude has been ascribed to republics as 
the sin which easily besets them. This characteristic, 
odious as it is, becomes much more so when it is accom- 
panied by proscription and persecution. Perhaps the 
source of this species of injustice to public servants, will 
be found in the nature of things, Republics almost inva- 
riably become divided into political parties ; and many a 
man, who lays claim to consideration on the score of per- 
sonal and moral worth, will bring his mind to adopt a 
course of conduct as a partizan, which he would individu- 
ally shrink from and apparently detest. The responsibil- 
ity in the latter case would be his own, and he must per- 
sonally be answerable for the whole ; while, in the former, 
it would be subdivided among so many that an individual 
share would be considered as hardly an object worthy of 
notice or regard. It required no small amount of courage, 
of a certain description, in any man, to attempt to destroy 
the reputation of George Washington, within less thatt ten 
years after the establishment of our national independence, 
24 



278 THE CHARACTER OF 

on the ground of his entertaining political sentiments 
opposed to republicanism, and favorable to the establish- 
ment of a monarchical government in the United States. 
After the lime he had spent, ihe sacrifices he had made, 
the risks he had run, the great talents he had displayed, 
he immensely important services he had rendered, in 
achieving the freedom and independence of his country, but 
few men would have possessed hardihood enough to at- 
tempt to undermine or lessen, much less to overthrow, the 
exalted character which that most distinguished and most 
excellent man had established. There was, however, some- 
thing more than this necessary to be done, before the object 
could be accomplished. It was indispensable to destroy 
the confidence of the nation in the integrity, talents, servi- 
ces and patriotism, of a large number of as able and vir- 
tuous statesmen, as brave and public spirited soldiers, as 
any republic, ancient or modern, could boast of. Bold and 
desperate, however, as the enterprise was, Mr. Jefferson 
had the hardihood to undertake it ; and what is, if possible, 
still more extraordinary, to a very considerable extent, he 
succeeded in the accomplishment of his object. The means 
by which he thus far attained his end, were secret, art- 
ful, and of the most unworthy character. They consisted 
of the profession of a sincere regard for the union and 
constitution of the republic, a sacred veneration for the 
people and their rights, a strong attachment to republican 
simplicity of habits and manners, and an equal dislike of 
all ostentation and parade, an utter disrelish for public 
employment, and a ceaseless yearning for the retirement 
of private lite; and far above all, an entire and absolute 
hatred of monarchical government. In the midst of all 
this, he yearned for popularity, by whatever meatis obtain- 
ed, and his bosom glowed with personal and political am- 
bition — an extreme desire for office, influence, and power. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 279 



CHAPTER XV. 

Alien and sedition laws — Reasons for passing the alien law — Copy 
of the act — Zealously opposed by Mr. Jefi'erson — His opinion of 
it as expressed in his letters — Urges Pendleton to write against 
it — Copy of parts of the sedition law — His opinion of it as ex- 
pressed in a letter to Mrs. Adams — Petitions to congress for the 
repeal of the laws — Report of committee in the house of repre- 
sentatives — Letter to Madison, February, 1799, giving an ac- 
count of the proceedings in the house on the report — Law re- 
specting alien enemies — Still in force — Extract from Tucker's 
Life of Jefferson — His object in opposing the law to court popu- 
larity, and render the federalists unpopular — Letter from gener- 
al "Washington to Spotswood, en the alien and sedition laws — 
Letter toB. Washington — Prosecutions under the sedition law — 
Persons convicted pardoned by Jefferson — Prosecutions in Con- 
necticut — Case of Rev. Dr. Backus — Letter from Jefferson to 
W. C. Nicholas, professing ignorance of these caset; — Facts to 
show that he was acquainted with them. 

Two acts of congress, which were passed di^ring the ad- 
ministration of the elder Mr. Adams, in the year 1798, 
commonly called the alien and sedition laws, were used 
with great success by Mr. Jefferson, and, under his influ- 
ence, by his partizans, against the federalists, as legislative 
enactments which violated the constitution of the United 
States. It is doubtful whether any other measures of the 
government, during that stormy period, had so powerful 
an agency in lessening the influence of the federalists and 
destroying their popularity. 

At the time when the alien law was passed, there were 
strong apprehensions of a war between the United States 
and France. Mr. Jcflerson was the vice president, end 



280 THE CHARACTER OF 

was warmly and zealously opposed to the measures of the 
government which related to the controversy with that 
nation. At the same time, there were in the country a 
number of bold, meddling and mischievous foreigners, 
some of whom were connected with the publication of 
newspapers, in which the administration, and the principal 
officers of the government, were constantly attacked in 
coarse, indecent, reproachful, and vindictive language. 
Their object most obviously was, by the promulgation of 
scurrility and slander to destroy the reputations and influ- 
ence of those members of the government, and to bring 
them into general contempt ; and at the same time, to excite 
a seditious spirit of opposition to its measures. In order to 
guard against the evils which such a state of things was cal- 
culated and designed to produce, especially in an important 
emergency, which was supposed likely to occur, it was 
thought to be expedient, as well as proper, to provide the 
means, in case of a necessity therefor, for the executive to 
restrain or prevent such persons from carrying into effect 
their mischievous intentions ; and if it should become ne- 
cessary, to remove them beyond the boundaries of the 
national jurisdiction. Such a power was considered as 
inherent in the government; as it would be an absurdity 
to refuse to it, under refined and scrupulous notions of 
constitutionality, the power of self-defence and protection. 
The act was in the following words — 

" 1. Be it enacted — That it shall be lawful for the pres- 
ident of the United States, at any time during the continu- 
ance of this act, to order all such aliens cs he shall judge 
dangerous to the peace and safely of the United States, or 
shall have reasonable ground to suspect are concerned in 
any treasonable or secret machinations against the govern- 
ment thereof^ to depart out of the territory of the United 
Slates, within such time as shall be expressed in such or- 



tferOMAS iEPI*ERSOK. 281 

Aef; which order shall be served on such alien by deliver* 
ing" him a copy thereof, or leaving the same at his usnal 
abodej and returned to the office of the secretary of state 
by the marshal or other person to whom the same shall be 
directed. And in case any alien so ordered to depart 
shall be found at large within the United States after the 
time limited in such order for his departure, and not hav- 
ing obtained a license from the president to reside therein, 
or having obtained such license shall not have conformed 
thereto, every such alien shall, on conviction thereof, be 
imprisoned for a term not exceeding three years, and shall 
never after be admitted to become a citizen of the United 
States. Provided, that if any alien so ordered to depart 
shall prove, to the satisfaction of the president, by evidence 
to be taken before such person or persons as the president 
shall direct, who are for that purpose hereby authorized to 
administer oaths, that no injury or danger to the United 
States will arise from suffering such alien to reside there- 
in, the president may grant a license to such alien to re- 
main within the United States, for such time as he shall 
judge proper, and at such place as he shall designate. 
And the president may also require of such alien to enter 
into a bond to the United States, in such penal sum as he 
niay direct, with one or more sufficient sureties, to the sat- 
isfaction of the person authorized by the president to lake 
the same, conditioned for the good behavior of such alien 
during his residence in the United Slates, and not violal-^ 
ing his license, which license the president may revoke 
whenever he shall think proper. 

" 2. That it shall be lawful for the president of the 
United States, whenever he may deem it necessary for the 
public safety, to order to be removed out of the territory^ 
thereof any alien who may or shall be in prison, in pur- 
suance of this act^ and to cause to be arrested and sent 



282 THE CHARACTER OF 

out of the United States, such of those aliens as shall 
have been ordered to depart therefrom and shall not have 
obtained a license as aforesaid, in all cases where, in the 
opinion of the president, the public safety requires a speedy 
removal. And if any alien so removed, or sent out of the 
United States, by the president, shall voluntarily return 
thereto, unless by permission of the United Slates, such 
alien, on conviction thereof, shall be imprisoned so long as, 
in the opinion of the president, the public safety may re- 
quire." 

The 3d, 4th and 5th sections relate to the manner of 
executing the law; and the 6th is in the following words — 

*' That this act shall continue and be in force for and 
during the term of two years from the passin^g thereof, 
[Approved, June 25, 1798.]^' 

This measure, as soon as it was proposed in congress^ 
met with the pointed opposition of Mr. Jefferson, who never 
lost an opportunity to seize hold of every subject that was 
calculated to excite popular passion, and to enlist in hif 
own favor vulgar prejudice or resentment. When it was 
in progress through congress, in a letter to James Madi- 
son, dated May 31, 1798, (Jefferson's Works, volume 3, 
page 391,) he says, " The alien bill will be ready to-day, 
probably far its third reading in the senate. It has beerv 
considerably mollified ^ particularly by a proviso saving the 
rights of parties. Still, it is a most detestable thing." In 
a letter to Stephens Thompson Mason, (Ibid, page 402,^ 
he says, " The X. Y, Z, fever has considerably abated 
through the country, as I am informed, and the alien and 
sedition laws are working hard. I fancy that some of 
the state legislatures will take strong ground on this occa-^ 
sion. For my own part, I consider those laws as merely 
an experiment on the American mind, to see how far it will 
tear an avowed violation of the constitution. If this goes 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 283 

down, we shall immediately see attempted another act of 
congress, declaring that the president shall continue in of- 
fice during life, reserving to another occasion the transfer 
of the succession to his heirs and the establishment of the 
senate for life." In a letter to John Taylor, dated Novem- 
ber 26, 179S, (Jefferson's Works, volume 4, page 403,) af- 
ter noticing the subject of amending the constitution in 
one or two particulars, he goes on to say, " For the present, 
I should be for resolving the alien and sedition laws to be 
against the constitution and merely void, and for address- 
ing the other states to obtain similar declarations ; and I 
vjould not do anything at this moment lohich should com' 
mit us further., but reserve ourselves to shape our future 
measures or no measures, by the events which may happen.''^ 
In page 414 of the same volume, in a letter to Edmund 
Pendleton, dated January 29, 1799, in which he urges 
Mr. Pendleton to recapitulate the transactions which oc- 
curred during the negotiation with France, for the purpose 
of bringing the subject distinctly to the understanding of 
the people, he says, " Nobody in America can do it as well 
as yourself, in the same character of the father of your 
country, or any form you like better, and so concise, as, 
omitting nothing material, may yet be printed in hand-bills 
of which we could print and dispeise ten or twelve thoU' 
sand copies under letter covers, through all the United 
States, by the members of congress when they return hwne. 
If the understanding of the people could be rallied to the 
truth on this subject by exposing the dupery practised on 
them, there are so many other things about to bear on 
them favorably for the resurrection of their republican 
spirit, that a reduction of the administration to constitu- 
tional principles cannot fail to be the effect. These are 
the alien and sedition laws," &c. 

That objects of a political description, rather than any 



284 THE CHARACTEft Or 

real apprehensions for the safety of the constilutionj cccti* 
pied Mr. Jefferson's mind and excited his opposition to 
these measures, will he more readily believed at this dis-» 
tance of time, is not improbable ; especially as his views 
and character are much better understood now than they 
were forty years ago. 

The act commonly called the " sedition law," was pass* 
ed at the same session of congress with the alien law. 
The second section, which was the offensive one, is in the 
following words— 

" That if any person shall write, print, utter or publish, 
or shall cause or procure to be written, printed, uttered or 
published, or shall knowingly and willingly assist or aid 
in writing, printing, uttering of publishing, any false, scan- 
dalous, writing or writings, against the government of the 
United States, or either house of the congress of the Uni- 
ted States, or the president of the United States, with in- 
tent to defame the said government, or either house of the 
said congress, or the said president, or to bring them, or 
either of them, into contempt or disrepute; or to excite 
against them, or either or any of them, the hatred of the 
good people of the United States, or to stir up sedition 
within the United States, or to excite any unlawful combi* 
nations therein for opposing or resisting any law of the 
United States, or any act of the president of the United 
States done in pursuance of any such law or of the pow- 
ers in him vested by the constitution of the United States ; 
or to resist, or oppose, or defeat, any such law or act ; or 
to aid, encourage, or abet, any hostile designs of any for- 
eign nation against the United States, their people, or gov- 
ernment, then such person, being thereof convicted before 
any court of the United States having jurisdiction thereof, 
shall be punished by a fine not exceeding two thousand 
dollars and by imprisonment not exceeding two years. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 285 

The third section is as follows — 

" That if any person shall be prosecuted under this act 
for the writing or publishing any libel aforesaid, it shall be 
lawful for the defendant, upon the trial of the cause, to 
give in evidence in his defence the truth of the matter con- 
tained in the publication charged as a libel. And the jury 
who shall try the cause, shall have a right to determine 
the law and the fact, under the direction of the court as 
in other cases." 

Mr. JefTerson's opinion of this act, as well as of the al- 
ien law, has already been cited. But in a letter to Mrs. 
Adams, dated July 22, 1804, (Jeflf. works, vol. 4, page 22,) 
he uses still stronger and more decisive language respect- 
ing the sedition law. In explaining to her the reason why 
he pardoned a man who had been convicted under the act 
for a libel upon his friend Mr. Adams, he says, " But an- 
other fact (of which he has been accused) is, that I liberated 
a wretch who was suffering for a libel against Mr. Adams. 
I do not know who was the particular wretch alluded to; 
but I discharged every person under punishment or prose- 
cution under the sedition law, because I considered and now 
consider that law to be a nullity, as absolute and as palpa- 
ble as if congress had ordered us to fall down and worship 
a golden image ; and that it was as much my duty to ar- 
rest its execution in every stage, as it would have been'to 
have rescued from the fiery furnace those who should have 
been cast into it for refusing to worship the image. It 
was accordingly done in every instance, without asking 
what the offenders had done, or against whom they had 
offended, but whether the pains they were suffering were 
inflicted under the pretended sedition law. It was certain- 
ly possible that my motives for contributing to the re- 
lief of Callendar, and liberating sufferers under the se- 
dition law, m.ight have been to protect, encourage, and 
reward slander ; but they may also have been those which 



286 THE CHARACTER OF 

inspire ordinary charities to objects of distress, nneritori- 
ous or not, or the obligation of an oath to protect the con- 
stitution, violated by an unauthorized act of congress. 
Which of these were my motives, must be decided by a 
regard to the general tenor of my life. On this I am not 
afraid to appeal to the nation at large, to posterity, and 
still less to that Being who sees himself our motives, 
who will judge us from his own knowledge of them, and 
not from the testimony of Porcupine or Fenno." 

At the session of congress which followed that in which 
the alien and sedition laws were passed, a great number of 
petitions praying for their repeal on the ground of their 
being unconstitutional, were presented, and referred to a 
committee of the house of representatives; who, on the 
21st of February, 1799, made a very able report on the 
general subject. The following is an extract from that 
document — 

" The act concerning aliens, and the act in addition to 
the act, entitled an act for the punishment of certain 

mes , shall be first considered. 

' eir constitutionality is impeached. It is contended 
that congress have no power to pass a law for removing 
aliens. 

" To this it is answered, that the asylum given by a na- 
tion to foreigners is mere matter of favor, resumable at the 
public will. On this point, abundant authorities might be 
adduced, but the common practice of nations attests the 
principle. 

The right of removing aliens, as an incident to the pow 
er of war and peace, according to the theory of the con 
stitution, belongs to the government of the United States 
By the 4th section of the 4th article of the constitution 
congress is required to protect each state from invasion 
and is vested by the 8lh section of the 5ih article, with 
power to make all laws, which shall be proper to carry in- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 287 

to effect all powers vested by the constitution in the gov- 
ernment of the United States, or in any department or of- 
ficer thereof; and to remove from the country, in times of 
hostility, dangerous aliens, who may be employed in pre- 
paring the way for invasion, is a measure necessary for 
the purpose of preventing invasion, and of course a meas- 
ure that congress is empowered to adopt. 

" The act is said to be unconstitutional, because to re- 
move aliens is a direct breach of the constitution, which 
provides by the 9th section of the 1st article, that ' the mi- 
gration or importation of such persons as any of the 
states shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited 
by the congress prior to the year 1808.' 

" To this, it is answered, first, that this section in the 
constitution was enacted solely in order to prevent con* 
gross from prohibiting, until after a fit period, the importa- 
tion of SLAVES, which appears from two considerations. 
First, that the restriction is confined to the states which 
were in existence at the time of establishing the constitu- 
tion ; and secondly, that it is to continue only twenty 
years, for neither of which modifications could there have 
been the least reason, had the restriction been intended to 
apply, not to slaves particularly, but to all emigrants in 
general. 

" Secondly, it is answered, that to prevent emigration in 
general is a very different thing from sending off after 
their arrival, feuch emigrants as might abuse the indulgence, 
by rendering themselves dangerous to the peace or safe- 
ty of the country, and that if the constitution, in this par- 
ticular, should be so construed, it would prevent congress 
from driving a body of armed men from the country, who 
might land with views evidently hostile. 

" Thirdly, that as the constitution has given to the 
states no power to remove aliens, during the period of the 



288 THE CHARACTER Of 

limitation under consideration, in the mean time, on the 
constTuclion assumed, there would be no authority in the 
country empowered to send away dangerous aliens, which 
cannot be admitted ; and that on a supposition the aforesaid 
restrictive clause included every description of emigrants, 
the different sections must receive such a construction as 
will reconcile them with each other ; and according to a 
fair interpretation of the different parts of the constitution, 
the section cannot be considered as restrictive on the power 
of congress to send away dangerous foreigners in times of 
threatened or actual hostility. And though the United 
States at the time of passing this act were not in a state 
of declared war, they were in a state of partial hostility, 
and had the power by law, to provide, as by this act they 
have done, for removing dangerous aliens. 

" This law is said to violate that part of the constitution 
which provides that the trial of all crimes except in cases 
of impeachment shall be by jury ; whereas this act invests 
the president with power to send away aliens on his own 
suspicion, and thus to inflict punishment without trial by 
jury. 

" It is answered in the first place, that the constitution 
was made for citizens, tiot for aliens, who of consequence 
have no rights under it, but remain in the country, and 
enjoy the benefit of the laws, not as matter of right, but 
merely as matter of favor and permission ; which favor 
and permission may be withdrawn whenever the gov- 
ernment charged with the general welfare shall judge their 
further continuance dangerous. It is answered in the se- 
cond place, that the provisions in the constitution relative 
to presentment and trial of offences by juries, do not apply 
to the revocation of an asylum given to aliens. Those 
provisions solely respect crimes, and the alien may be re- 
moved without having committed any oflTence, merely from 



'THOMAS JEFFERSON> 289 

motives of policy or security. The citizen, "being a mem- 
ber of the society, has a right to remain in the country, of 
which he cannot be disfranchised, e-xcept for offences first 
asceriaitied on presentment and trial by jury. 

" It is answered thirdly, that the removal of aliens, 
though it may be inconvenient to them, cannot be consid- 
ered as a punishment inflicted for an offence, but, as before 
remarked, merely the removal, from motives of general 
safety, of an indulgence which there is danger of their 
abusing, and which we are in no manner bound to grant 
or continue. 

" The 'act in addition to an act, entitled an act for the 
punishment of certain crimes against the United States,' 
commonly called the sedition act, contains provisions of a 
twofold nature ; first, against seditious acts, and second, 
against libelous and seditious writings. The first liave 
never been complained of, nor has any objection been made 
to its validity : the objection applies solely to the second ; 
arid on the ground, in the first place, that congress has no 
power by the constitution to pass any act for punishing 
libels, no such power being expressly given, and all pow- 
ers not given to congress being reserved to the states re- 
spectively, or to the people thereof. 

" To this opinion it is answered, that a law to punish 
false, scandalous and malicious writings against the gov- 
ernment, with intent to stir up sedition, is a law necessary 
for carrying into effect the power vested by the constitu- 
tion in the government of the United States, and in the 
departments and officers thereof, and consequently such a 
law as congress may pass : because the direct tendency of 
such writings is to obstruent the acts of the government by 
exciting opposition to them, to endanger its existence by 
Tendering it odious and contemptible in the eyes of the 
people, and to produce seditious combinations against the 
25 



290 THE CHARACTER OF 

laws, the power to punish which has never been question- 
ed : because it would be manifestly absurd to suppose thai 
a government might punish sedition, and yet be void of 
power to prevent it by punishing those acts, which plainly 
and necessarily lead to it. And because under the general 
power to make all laws proper and necessary for carrying 
into effect the powers vested by the constitution in the gov- 
ernment of the United Slates, congress has passed many 
laws for which no express provision can be found in the 
constitution, and the constitutionality of which have never 
been questioned ; such as the first section of the act now 
under consideration for punishing seditious combinations ; 
the act passed during the present session, for punishing 
persons who, without authority from the government, shall 
carry on any correspondence relative to foreign affairs with 
any foreign government ; the act for the punishment of 
certain crimes against the United States, which defines 
and punishes misprision of treason ; the 10th and 12th sec- 
tions, which declare the punishment of accessories to pira- 
cy, and of persons who shall confederate to become pirates 
themselves, or to induce others to become so; the 15th 
section, which inflicts a penalty on those who steal or 
falsify the record of any court of the United States; the 
18ih and 21st sections of which provide for the punish- 
ment of persons committing perjury in any court of the 
United Stales, or attempting to bribe any of their judges ; 
the 22d section, which furnishes those who obstruct or re- 
sist the progress of any court of the United Stales, and 
the 23d against rescuing offenders who have been convicted 
of any capital offence before those courts; provisions, none 
of which are expressly authorized, but which have been- 
considered as constitutional because they are necessary 
and proper for carrying into effect certain powers expressly 
given to congress. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 291 

" It is objected to this act, in the second place, that it is 
expresslj^ contrary to that part of the constitution which 
declares that ' congress shall make no law respecting^ an 
establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise 
thereof, or abridging the liberty of the press,' The act in 
question is said to be an ' abridgment of the liberty of 
the press,' and therefore unconstitutional. 

"To this it is answered, in the first place, that the lib- 
erty of the press consists not in a license for every man to 
publish what he pleases, without being liable to punish- 
ment if he should abuse this license to the injury of others, 
but in a permission to publish, without previous restraint, 
whatever he may think proper, being answerable to the 
public and individuals for any abuse of this permission to 
their prejudice; in like manner as the liberty of speech 
does not authorize a man to speak malicious slanders 
against his neighbor, nor the liberty of action justify him 
in going by violence into another man's house, or in as- 
saulting any person whom he may meet in the streets. In 
the several states, the liberty of the press has always been 
understood in this manner, and no other; and the consti- 
tution of every state, which has been framed and adopted 
since the declaration of independence, asserts ' the liberty of 
the press,' while in several, if not all, their laws provide 
for the punishment of libelous publications, which would 
be a manifest absurditjr and contradiction, if the liberty of 
the press meant to publish anything and everything, with- 
out being amenable to the laws for the abuse of this li- 
cense. According to this just, legal, and universally ad- 
mitted definition of ' liberty of the press,' a law to restrain 
its licentiousness, in publishing false, scandalous and ma- 
licious libels against the government, cannot be considered 
as 'an abridgment' of its 'liberty.' 

"It is answered, in the second place, that the liberty of 



292 THE CHARACTER OF 

the press did never extend, according to the laws of any 
state, or of the United States, or of England, from whence 
our laws are derived, to the publication of false^ scandalous 
and malicious writings against the government, written or 
published with intent to do mischief, such publications be- 
ing unlawful and punishable in every state ; from whence 
it follows undeniably, that a law to publish seditious and 
malicious publications is not an abridgment of ' the liber- 
ty of the press,' for it would be a manifest absurdity io 
say, that a man's liberty was abridged for doing that which 
he never had a liberty to do. 

" It is answered, thirdly, that the act in question cannot 
be unconstitutional, because it makes nothing penal that 
was not penal before, and gives no new powers to the 
court, but is merely declaratory of the common law, and 
useful for rendering that law more generally known and 
more easily understood. This cannot be denied, ff it be 
admitted, as it must be, that false, scandalous, and mali- 
cious libels against the government of the country, pub- 
lished with intent to do mischief, are punishable by the 
common law; for by the 2d section of the 3d article of the 
constitution, the judicial power of the United States is 
expressly extended to all offences arising under the constitu- 
tion. By the constitution the government of the United 
States is established, for many important objects, as the 
GOVERNMENT OF THE COUNTRY ; and libels against that gov- 
ernment, iBereficxre, are offences arising under the constitu- 
tion, and consequently are punishable at common law by 
the courts of the United States. The act, indeed, is so 
far from having extended the law, and the power of the 
court, that it has abridged both^ and has enlarged instead 
of abridging the 'liberty of the press;' for at common 
law, libels against the government might be punished with 
fine and imprisonment al the discretion of the court, where- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 293 

as the act limits the fine to two thousand dollars, and the 
imprisonment to two years ; and it also allows the party 
accused to give the truth in evidence for his justification, 
which by the common law was expressly forbidden. 

"And lastly, it is answered, that had the constitution 
intended to prohibit congress from legislating at all on the 
subject of the press, which is the construction whereon the 
objections to this law are founded, it would have used the 
same expressions as in that part of the clause which re- 
lates to religion and religious tests ; wheYeas the words 
are wholly different; "congress," says the constitution, 
(amendment 3d,) " shall make no law respecting an es- 
tablishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise 
hereof, or abridging the freedom of speech or the press." 
Here it is manifest that the constitution intended to prohib- 
it congress from legislating at all on the subject of reli- 
gious establishments, and the prohibition is made in the 
most express terms. Had the same intention prevailed re- 
specting the press, the same expressions would have been 
used, and congress would have been " prohibited from pass- 
ing any law respecting the press." They are not, howev- 
er, " prohibited " from legislating at all on the subject, but 
merely from abridging the liberty of the press. It is ev- 
ident they may legislate respecting the press, may pass 
laws for its regulation, and to punish those who- pervert it 
into an engine of mischief, provided those laws do not 
*' abridge" its "liberty." Its liberty, according to the 
well known and universally admitted definition;, consists 
in permission to publish, without previous restrain'.t upon 
the press, but subject to punishment afterwards for improp- 
er publications. A law, therefore, to impose previous re- 
straint upon the press, and not one to inflict punishment 
on wicked and malicious publications, would be a law tO' 
25=^ 



294 THE CHARACTER OF 

abridge the liberty of the press, and as such unconstitu- 
tiona}. 

" The foregoing reasoning is submitted as vindicating the 
validity of the laws in question. 

" Although the committee believe, that each of the meas- 
trres adopted by congress during the lastsessioti is suscept- 
ible of an analytical JTJstification, on the principles of the 
consliiution and national policy, yet they prefer to rest 
their vindication on the true ground of considering them 
as parts of a general system of defence, adapted to a cri- 
sis of extraordinary difficulty and danger. 

'* It cannot be denied that the power to declare war; 
to raise and support armies ; lo provide and maintain a 
navy ; to suppress insurrections and repel invasions, and 
also the power to defray the necessary expense by loans or 
taxes, are vested in congress. Unfortunately for the present 
generation of mankind, a contest has arisen and rages with 
unabated ferocity, which has desolated the fairest portion of 
Europe, and shaken the fabric of society through the civi- 
lized world. From the nature and effects of this contest, as 
developed in the experienceof nations, melancholy inferences 
must be drawn, that it is onsusceptible of the restraints 
which have either designated the objects, limited the dura- 
tion, or mitigated the horrors of national contentions. In the 
internal history of France, and in the conduct of her forces 
and partizans in the countries which have fallen under her 
power, the public councils of our country were required to 
dfecern the dangers which threatened the United States, 
and to guard not only against the usual consequences of 
war, but also against the effects of an unprecedented com-' 
binalion to establish new principles of social action on the 
subversion of religioUf morality, law and governments 
Will it be said, that the raising of a small army, and an 
eventual provision for drawing into the public service a 



I'HOMAS JEFFfiRSOil. 29^ 

coftsiderabk proportion of the whole force of the countryj 
was in such a crisis unwise or improvident? 

" If such should be the assertion, let it be candidly con- 
sidered, whether some of our fertile and flourishing states 
did not, six months since, present as alluring objects for the 
gratification of ambition or cupidity as the inhospitable cli- 
mate of Egypt? What then appeared to be the conipar- 
ative difficulties between invading America and sdbverting 
the British power in the East Ifidies ? If this was a pro- 
fessed, not a real object, of the enterprise, let it be asked, 
if the sultan of the Ottoman Empire was not really the 
friend of France at the time when his unsuspecting de- 
pendencies were invaded ; and whether the United States 
were not at the same time loaded with insults and assailed 
with hostility? If, however, it be asserted, that the system 
of France is hostile only to despotic or monarchical gov- 
ernments, and that our security arises from the form of 
our constitution, let Switzerland, first divided and disarm- 
ed by perfidious seductions, now agonized by relentless 
power, illustrate the consequences of similar credulity. Is 
it necessary at this time to vindicate the naval armament J 
rather may not the enquiry be boldly made, whether the 
guardians of the public weal would not have deserved and 
received the reproaches of every patriotic American, if a 
contemptible naval force had been longer permitted to in- 
tercept our necessary supplies, destroy our principal source 
of revenue, and seize, at the entrance of our harbors and 
rivers, the products of our industry destined to our foreign 
markets ? If such injuries were at all to be repelled, is not 
the restriction which confined captures by our ships solely 
to armed vessels of France, a sufficient proof of our mod- 
eration ? 

" If, therefore, naval and military preparations were ne- 
cessary, a provision of funds to defray the consequent ex- 



296 THE CHARAdTEtl OP 

penses was of course indispensable ; a review of all the 
measures that have been adopted since the establishment of* 
the government, will prove that congress have not been un- 
mindful of the wishes of the American people to avoid an 
accumulation of the public debt ; and the success which has 
attended these measures affords conclusive evidence of the 
sincerity of their intentions. But to purchase sufficient 
quantities of military supplies, to establish a navy, and pro- 
vide for all the contingencies of an army, without recourse 
to new taxes and loans, was impracticable ; both measures 
were in fact adopted, — in devising a mode of taxation, the 
convenience and ease of the least wealthy class of the peo- 
ple were consulted as much as possible, and although the 
expenses of assessment have furnished a topic of complaint, 
it is found that the allowances are barely sufficient to en- 
sure the execution of the law, even aided as they are by 
the disinterested and patriotic exertions of worthy citizens; 
besides, it ought to be remembered that the expenses of 
organizing a new system, should not on any principle, be 
regarded as a permanent burden on the public. 

'* In authorizing a loan of money, congress have not been 
inattentive to prevent a permanent debt ; in this particular, 
also, the public opinion and interest have been consulted. 
On considering the law, as well as the manner in which it 
is proposed to be carried into execution, the committee are 
well satisfied in finding any excess in the immediate charge 
upon the revenue is likely to be compensated by the facil- 
ity of redemption, which is secured to the government. 

" The alien and sedition acts, so called, form a part, 
and, in the opinion of the committee, an essential part in 
these precautionary and protective measures adopted for 
our security. 

"France appears to have an organized system of con- 
duct towards foreign nations — to bring them within the 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 297 

sphere and under the doaiinion of her influence and con- 
trol. It has been unremittingly pursued under all the 
changes of her internal polity. Her means are in wonder- 
ful coincidence with her ends. Among these, and not the 
least successful, is the direction and employment of the ac- 
tive and versatile talents of her citizens abroad, as emissa- 
ries and spies. With a numerous body of French citizens 
and other foreigners, and admonished by the passing scenes- 
in other countries, as well as by aspects in our own, know- 
ing they had the power, j^nd believing it to be their duty^ 
congress passed the law respecting aliens, directing the 
dangerous and suspected, to be removed and leaving to the 
inoffensive and peaceable a safe asylum. 

" The principles of the sedition law, so called, are among 
the most ancient principles of our governments. They 
have been ingrafted into statutes, or practiced upon as max- 
ims of the common law, according as occasion required. 
They w^ere often and justly applied in the revolutionary 
war. Is it not strange, that now they should first be de- 
nounced as oppressive, when they have long been recog- 
nized in the jurisprudence of these states ? 

" The necessity that dictated these acts, in the opinion of 
the committee, still exists. 

" So eccentric are the movements of the French govern- 
ment, we can form no opinion of their future designs to- 
wards our country. They may recede from the tone of 
menace and insolence, to employ the arts of seduction, be- 
fore they astonish us with their ultimate designs. Our 
safely consists in the wisdom of the public councils, a co- 
operation on the part of the people with the government, 
by supporting the measures provided for repelling aggres- 
sions, and an obedience to the social laws. 

" After a particular and general review of the whole sub- 
ject referred to their consideration^ the committee see na 



298 THE CHARACTER OF 

ground for rescinding these acts of the legislature. The 
complaints preferred by some of the petitioners may he fair- 
ly attributed to a diversity of sentiment naturally to be ex- 
pected among a people of various habits and education 
widely dispersed over an extensive country ; the innocent 
misconceptions of the American people will, however, yield 
to reflection and argument, and from them no danger is to 
apprehended. 

" In such of the petitions as are conceived in a style of 
vehement and acrimonious remo.nstrance, the committee 
perceive too plain indications of the principles of that exotic 
system which convulses the civilized world. With this 
system, however organized, the public councils cannot 
safely parley or temporize ; whether it assumes the guise of 
patriotism to mislead the affections of the people — whether 
it be employed in forming projects of local and eccentric 
ambition, or shall appear in the more generous form of 
open hostility, it ought to be regarded as the bane of public 
as well as private tranquillity and order. 

"Those to whom the management of public affairs is 
now confided, cannot be justified in yielding any establish- 
ed principles of law or government to the suggestions of 
modern theory ; their duty requires them to respect the 
lessons of experience, and transmit to posterity the civil 
and religious privileges which are the birth-right of our 
country, and which it was the great object of our happy 
constitution to secure and perpetuate. 

" Impressed with these sentiments, the committee beg 
leave to report the following resolutions : — 

" Resolved, That it is inexpedient to repeal the act pass- 
ed the last session, entitled " An act concerning aliens." 

" Resolved, That it is inexpedient to repeal the act pass- 
ed the last session, entitled ' An act in addition to the [act 
entitled An act for the punishment of certain crimes against 
the United States. ' 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 299 

" Resolved^ That it is inexpedient to repeal any of the 
laws respecting the navy, military establishment or reve- 
nue of the United States." 

This report is inserted at length on account of its great 
importance, being the only public document which presents 
a full view of the origin of the alien and sedition laws, the 
principles on which they were founded, and the clear, 
sound, and unanswerable constitutional argument by which 
they were supported and justified. Without attempting, 
however, to overthrow, or even to answer the reasoning 
contained in it, Mr. Jefferson laid by none of his virulence 
and animosity towards those act?: ; but made use of them 
as long as it was necessary for his political purposes, to 
forward his own views and vilify his opponents. This re- 
port, as has been remarked, was dated on the 21st of Feb- 
ruary, 1799. On the 26th of that month, in a letter to 
James Madison, (Jeff. Works, vol. 3, page 423,) he says, 
" Yesterday witnessed a scandalous scene in the house of 
representatives. It was the day for taking up the report of 
their committee against the alien and sedition laws, &;c. 
They held a caucus and determined that not a word should 
be spoken on their side, in answer to any thing which 
should be said on the other. Gallatin took up the alien 
and Nicholas the sedition law ; but after a little while of 
common silence, they began to enter into loud conversa- 
tions, laugh, cough, &c., so that for the last hour of these 
gentlemen's speaking they must have had the lungs of a 
vendue master to have been heard. Livingston, however, 
attempted to speak. But after a few sentences the speak- 
er called him to order, and told him what he was saying 
was not to the question. It was impossible to proceed. 
The question was taken and carried in favor of the report, 
fifty-two to forty-eight ; the real strength of the two parties 
is fifty-six to fifiy." 



300 THE CHARACTER OF 

During the same session of congress at which the alien 
and sedition laws were enacted, the following act was 
passed, under the title of " An act respecting alien ene- 
mies." 

" That, whenever there shall be a declared war between 
the United States and any foreign nation or government, 
or any invasion or predatory incursion shall be perpetrated, 
attempted or threatened, against the territory of the United 
States by any foreign nation or government, and the pres- 
ident of the United States shall make public proclamation 
of the event, all natives, citizens, denizens or subjects 
of the hostile nation or government, being males of the 
age oi ourteen years and upwards, who shall be within 
the United States and not actually naturalized, shall be 
liable to be apprehended, restrained secured, anti removed, 
as alien enemies. And the president of the United States 
shall be, and he is hereby authorized, in any event, as 
aforesaid, by his proclamation thereof, or other public act, 
to direct the conduct to be observed on the part of the 
United States towards the aliens who shall become liable 
as aforesaid, the manner and the degree of the restraint to 
Vt^hich they shall be subject, and in what cases and upon 
what security their residence shall be permitted, and to 
provide for the removal of those v^^ho, not being permitted 
to reside within the United States, shall refuse or neglect 
to depart therefrom, and establish any other regulations 
which shall be found necessary in the premises and for 
the public safety. 

" That after any proclamation shall be made as afore- 
said, it shall be the duty of the several courts of the United 
States, and of each state havingcriminal jurisdiction, and of 
the several judges and justices of the courts of the United 
States, and they shall be, and are hereby respectively au- 
thorized upon complaint, against any alien or alien one- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 301 

.mies, as aforesaid, who shall be resident and at large, 
within such jurisdiction or district, to the danger of the 
public peace or safety and contrary to the tenor or intent 
of such proclamation or other regulations w:iiich the presi- 
dent of the United States shall and may establish in the 
premises, to cause such alien or aliens to be duly appre- 
hended and convened before such court, judge, or justice; 
and after a full examination or hearing on such complaint, 
and sufficient cause thereior appearing, shall and may or- 
der such alien or aliens to be removed out of the territory 
of the United Stales, or to give sureties of their good be- 
havior, or to be otherwise restrained, conformably to the 
proclamation or regulations which shall and may be estab- 
lished as aforesaid, and may imprison or otherwise se- 
cure such alien or aliens until the order which shall and 
may be made, as aforesaid, shall be performed." 

This act was passed without any provision limiting its 
duration, and it is now in the statute book of the United 
States, and in force ; and in the war with Great Britain in 
1812, it was enforced by Mr. Madison, then president of 
the United States, against British subjects residing in the 
United States, numbers of whom were ordered to remove 
from the Atlantic cities back into the country, and to re- 
main there until the return of peace. 

That Mr. Jeiierson's hostility to the alien and sedition 
law proceeded, in some measure at least, from feelings 
and views pf a political character, rather than from a sin- 
cere conviction that they were unconstitutional, may be 
safely inferred from what has been said. Additional proof 
in support of this remark, as it regards the alien law, may 
be derived from Tucker's Life of Jefierson, a work recent- 
ly published. In the second volume of the work, page 45, 
it is said, " During the ten years that the present federal 
government had been in operation, many questions had 
26 



302 THE CJHARACTER OF 

arisen concerning the interpretation of the constitution. 
But there had been no instance in which the opinion that 
that instrument had been violated was so decided, or in 
which the supposed infraction had excited so much 'sensi- 
bility, as these two laws, [alien and sedition laws,] which 
were always coupled together in the public mind as hav- 
ing originated in the same policy, and as leading to the 
same tendency. But in point of fact it was the law that 
abridged the freedom of the press which was most looked 
at; and the other was condemned by most Americans, 
like the stork in the fable, for the society in which it was 
found, and for the sake of soothing the great mass of for- 
eigners who were not yet naturalized, the greater part of 
whom, particularly the Irish and French, were attached to 
the republican party.'''' 

Mr. Jefferson was perfectly aware of the importance of 
securing the votes as well as the feelings of the foreigners, 
who early began to flock in great numbers to this country. 
Hence he recommended, shortly after his accession to the 
office of president, an alteration in the naturalization law, 
shortening materially the period of residence before a for- 
eigner could be admitted to the rights of citizenship. He 
knew what description of persons would be the most likely 
to quit their own countries and take refuge in the United 
States, and that a little flattery and a show of regard for 
their welfare, would attach them to his interests and his 
party ; especially as it was called " the republican party." 
These considerations very naturally would, and undoubt- 
edly did, call forth his enmity to the alien law ; and coup- 
ling it with the sedition law, which had reference to the 
press, it was an easy task for him to excite the public pas- 
sions, over which he had an almost absolute command, 
against both these measures. Both of them were unques- 
tionably warranted by the constitutional authority of con- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 303 

gress ; but in hands as dextrous as his, and with a party 
as blindly devoted to their leader as his were, it accom- 
plished the objects he had in view, which were, to elevate 
himself and depress his opponents. 

In addition to what has been adduced in vindication of 
the alien and sedition laws, and in support of their consti- 
tutionality, the following extract of a letter from gene- 
ral Washington to Alexander Spotswood, dated Philadel- 
phia, November 22, 1798, (Wash. Corres. vol. 11, page 
345,) containing his sentiments on that subject, will be read 
with interest : — 

" Your letter of the 13th inst. inclosing a publication 
under the signature of Gracchus on the alien and 'sedi- 
tion laws, found me at this place deeply engaged in busi- 
ness. 

" You ask my opinion of these laws, professing to place 
confidence in my judgment. For this complimei.t I thank 
you. But to give opinions unsupported by reasons might 
appear dogmatical, especially as you have dec iared that 
Gracchus has produced ' thorough conviction in your mind 
of the unconstitutionality and inexpediency of the acts 
above mentioned.' To go into an explanation on these 
points I have neither leisure nor inclination, because it 
would occupy more time than I have to spare. 

" But I will take the liberty of advising such as are not 
* thoroughly convinced,' and whose minds are yet open to 
conviction, to read the pieces and hear the arguments which 
have been advanced in favor of as well as those against the 
constitutionality and expediency of those laws before they 
decide ; and consider to what lengths a certain description 
of men in our country have already driven, and seem re- 
solved to drive matters, and then ask themselves if it is 
not time and expedient, to resort to protecting laws against 
aliens, (for citizens you certainly know are not afl^ected by 



304 THE CHARACTER OF 

that law,) who acknowledge no allegiance to this country, 
and in many instances are sent among us, as there is the 
best circumstantial evidence to prove, for the express pur- 
pose of poisoning the minds of our people, and sowing 
dissensions among them, in order to alienate their affec- 
tions from the government of their choice, thereby endeav- 
oring to dissolve the union, and of course the fair and hap- 
py prospects which were unfolding to our view from the 
revolution." 

In a letter to Bushrod Washington, dated December 31, 
1798, (Ibid. 386,) is the following passage relating to the 
same subject : — 

"'By this conveyance I have sent to general Marshall 
the charge of judge Addison to the grand juries of the 
county courts of the fifth circuit of the state of Pennsyl- 
vania, and requested him, after he had read it, to give it to 
you, or dispose of it in any other manner he might think 
proper. This charge is on the liberty of speech and the 
press, and is a justification of the alien and sedition laws. 

" But I do not believe, that anything contained in it, in 
Evans's pamphlet or in any other writing, will produce the 
least change in the conduct of the leaders of opposition 
to the measures of the general government. They have 
points to carry, from which no reasoning, no inconsistency 
of conduct, no absurdity, can divert them. If, however, 
such writings should produce conviction in the minds of 
those who have hitherto placed faith in their assertions, it 
will be a fortunate event for this country." 

Various prosecutions were brought before the United 
States courts for violations of the sedition law, and convic- 
tions obtained, in the discussion of which cases the consti- 
tutionality of the act was fully considered and adjudicated, 
and the penakies prescribed in it were enforced. Still, 
Mr. Jefferson's opposition to both the laws was steady, un- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 305 

remitted and vehement ; the federalists were accused of 
having violated the constitution in enacting both the stat- 
utes, and, as has been seen, upon coming into the office 
of president of the United States, he exercised the power 
of pardoning vested in him by the constitution, and dis- 
charged every person convicted under the sedition law 
from prison and punishment, professedly on the simple 
ground that the law was unconstitutional, and, therefore, 
null and void. And it is well known to every person who 
was on the stage of life at the time and paid any atten- 
tion to passing events, that he was more indebted to the 
clamor raised by himself and echoed by his partizans 
against these two acts of congress as being unwarranted 
by the constitution, than to any other cause, for the success 
of his ambitious project of raising himself to the chief 
magistracy of the nation. That the acts were clearly con- 
stitutional no intelligent and upright mind, after examin- 
ing the foregoing report, can doubt. That the clamor 
against them was intended for party purposes and personal 
interests is equally unquestionable. 

At the circuit court of the United States, held in the 
district of Connecticut in April, 1806, bills for libelous 
publications were found against three persons, viz : Thom- 
as Collier, a printer, Thaddeus Osgood, a young clergy- 
man, and Tappan Reeve, a judge of the superior court of 
that state. These prosecutions were necessarily at com- 
mon law, because the far-famed sedition law had expired. 
In the course of several successive terms of the court, an 
additional number of prosecutions for seditious and libelous 
publications were instituted against different persons. After 
harrassing the defendants in these cases by arrests, holding 
to bail, attendance from term to term upon the court, em- 
ploying counsel, and in all the variety of forms in which 
litigation is so singularly fertile, they all failed, (with the 
26=^ 



306 THE CHARACTER OF 

exception, perhaps, of one,) either for insufficiency in the 
indictments, the want of jurisdiction in the court, or by the 
district attorney entering nolle prosequi. The expenses to 
which the United States were subjected by these prosecu- 
tions must have been very large, as great numbers of wit- 
nesses were summoned from term to term, and in attend- 
ance through a great part of the time the court was in 
session. Several of these cases were for alleged libels 
upon Mr. Jefferson ; and they were instituted and con- 
ducted in court by a district attorney whom he had ap- 
pointed to the office — an officer who must, of course, have 
possessed his confidence. On the 22d of January, 1807, 
during Mr. Jefferson's administration, a member of the 
house of representatives of the United States from the 
state of Connecticut, introduced to that house the following 
resolution. " Resolved, that the secretary of the treasury 
be directed to lay before this house copies of the accounts 
containing the respective charges which have been adjust- 
ed by the accounting officers of the treasury in cases of 
public prosecutions before the circuit court of the United 
States, holden in the districc of Connecticut, in the months 
of April and September, in the year one thousand eight 
hundred and six." On the 28th of January, 1807, " The 
speaker laid before the house a letter from the secretary 
of the treasury, inclosing copies of the accounts of expenses 
incurred in public prosecutions before the circuit court of 
the United States for the district of Connecticut, in the 
months of April and September, one thousand eight hun- 
dred and six, in obedience to a resolution of the house, of 
the twenty-second instant, which were read and ordered to 
be committed to the committee of the whole house, to whom 
was committed, on the second instant, a motion for the ap- 
pointment of a committee ' to inquire whether prosecutions 
at common law could be sustained in the courts of the 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 307 

United States for libelous publications or defamatory 
words, touching persons holding offices or places of trust 
under the United States; and whether it would not be 
proper, if the same be sustained, to allow the parties pros- 
ecuted the liberty of giving the truth in evidence.' " 

Among these prosecutions was one against the Rev. 
Azel Backus, of Bethlehem, in the state of Connecticut, a 
clergyman of distinguished talents and highly esteemed 
for learning and piety. After the expiration of the sedi- 
tion law of the United States, which contained a provision 
authorizing, in prosecutions under it, the truth to be given 
in evidence in justification of the party prosecuted, the le- 
gislature of Connecticut passed an act with a similar pro- 
vision. Finding that the district attorney appeared to be 
determined, first or last, to bring the case against Dr. 
Backus to trial, a messenger was despatched in his behalf 
to Virginia, to summon witnesses from that state to prove 
the truth of the matters alleged against him in the indict- 
ment. One of those witnesses was the honorable James 
Madison, then secretary of state and afterwards president 
of the United States. Upon ascertaining what testimony 
would be required of him, he informed Mr. Jefferson that 
he had been called upon to testify, and what would be the 
nature of the testimony which was expected from him. 
Upon learning this, and, at the same time, being informed 
that several other witnesses had been summoned to attend 
the court, Mr. Jefferson gave notice to them that they need 
not obey the summons, as the cases would be disposed of 
without trial ; and they, therefore, did not attend. These 
facts were stated in open court by Dr. Backus's counsel ; 
the case against him was continued to another term of the 
court, and eventually was dismissed without trial. 

In the 4th volume of Mr. Jefferson's works, page 129, 
is a letter from him to Wilson C. Nicholas, dated June 13, 
1809, of which the following is an extract : — 



308 THE CHARACTER OF 

" I had observed in a newspaper (some years ago, I do 
not recollect the time exactly,) some dark hints of a prose- 
cution in Connecticut, but so obscurely hinted that I paid 
little attention to it. Some considerable time after it was 
again mentioned, so that I understood that some prosecu- 
tion was going on in the federal court there for calumnies 
uttered from the pulpit against me by a clergyman. I 
immediately wrote to Mr. Granger, who, I think, was in 
Connecticut at the time, stating, that I had laid it down as 
a law to myself to take no notice of the thousand calum- 
nies issued against me, but to trust my character to my 
own conduct and the good sense and candor of my fellow- 
citizens ; that I had found no reason to be dissatisfied with 
that course, and I was unwilling it should be broke through 
by others as to any matter concerning me ; and I therefore 
requested him to desire the district attorney to dismiss the 
prosecution. Some time after this, I heard of subpcsnas 
being served on general Lee, Davis M. Eandolph and oth- 
ers, as witnesses to attend the trial. I then, for the first 
time, conjectured the subject of the libel. I immediately 
wrote to Mr. Granger to require an immediate dismission 
of the prosecution. The answer of Mr. Huntington, the 
district attorney, was, that these subpcEnas had been issued 
by the defendant without his knowledge ; that it had been 
his intention to dismiss all the prosecutions at the first 
meeting of the court, and to accompany it with an avowal 
of his opinion that they could not be maintained, because 
the federal court had no jurisdiction over libels. This 
was accordingly done. I did not till then know that there 
were other prosecutions of the same nature, nor do I now 
know what were their subjects, but all went off together; 
and 1 afterwards saw, in the hands of Mr. Granger, a let- 
ter written by the clergyman, disavowing all personal ill- 
will towards me, and solemnly declaring he had never ut- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 309 

tered the words charged. I think Mr. Granger either 
showed me or said there were affidavits of at least half a 
dozen respectable men, who were present at the sermon, 
and swore no such expressions were uttered, and as many 
equally respectable who swore the contrary. But the 
clergyman expressed his gratification at the dismission of 
the prosecution. I write all this from memory, and after 
too long an interval of time to be certain of the exactness 
of all the details; but I am sure there is no variation ma- 
terial, and Mr. Granger, correcting small laxes of memory, 
can confirm everything substantial. Certain it is that the 
prosecutions had been instituted, and had made consider- 
able progress, without my knowledge ; that they were 
disapproved of by me as soon as known, and directed to 
be discontinued. The attorney did it on the same ground 
on which I had acted myself in the cases of Duane, Cal- 
lendar and others ; to wit, that the sedition law was un- 
constitutional and null, and my obligation to execute what 
was law involved that of not suflfering rights secured by 
valid laws to be prostrated by what was no law. I always 
understood that the prosecutions had been invited by judge 
Edwards, and the marshall, being ]»epublican, had sum- 
moned a grand jury partly or wholly republican ; but that 
Mr. Huntington declared from the beginning against the 
jurisdiction of the court, and had determined to enter nolle 
prosequi before he received my directions." 

In the year 1808, a pamphlet was published in Connect- 
icut, under the title of "A Letter to the President of 
THE United States, touching the 'prosecutions under his 
patronage before the circuit court in the district of Con- 
necticut ; containing a faithful narrative of the extraor- 
dinary measures pursued^ and of the incidents, both serious 
and laughable, that occurred during the yendencij of these 
abortive 'prosecutions.'" This publication was understood 



310 THE CHARACTER OP 

at the time to have been written by a gentleman of the 
bar, of the highest respectability for talents and character, 
who, having been engaged as counsel in the prosecutions 
alluded to, was perfectly acquainted with their origin, pro- 
gress and termination. The facts, and the dates which 
he gives, will enable any person to form an opinion re- 
specting the truth of Mr. Jefferson's declarations to Mr. 
Nicholas respecting his want of knowledge of the exist- 
ence of the cases, and of the time and manner of his first 
becoming acquainted with their having been instituted. 
The facts that the indictments for libels were found by 
the grand jury, the parties arrested, brought before the 
court and admitted to bail, the cases continued ; that 
the indictments were quashed for insufficiency, renewed, 
continued and quashed again, or voluntarily withdrawn 
by the prosecuting attorney, were all matters of so much 
notoriety, of such common conversation and of newspaper 
commentary, that if the subject had not been, as has been 
stated, brought before congress and made the subject of 
inquiry there, it would have been little short of marvelous 
if the knowedge of the existence of these prosecutions had 
not reached the earsxif Mr. Jefferson. 

The following is an extract from the editor's preface to 
Hampden's pamphlet : — 

" It is a subject of some regret that Hampden has not 
interwoven with his narrative a detailed statement of the 
measures taken by the president to prevent the witnesses 
summoned in Virginia, in the case of Mr. Backus, from 
attending the court, together with certain et ceteras con- 
nected therewith. This is a very curious history ! It will 
be laid before the public." The reason is then stated, and 
the author of the preface proceeds to remark as follows, — 

" In one of the southern states, a few months since, I 
became acquainted with the gentleman who sunjmoned 



• THOMAS JEFFERSON. 311 

the several witnesses in Virginia; among whom were 
colonel Walker and Mr. Madison. This gentleman in- 
formed me that he saw and conversed freely with the for- 
mer, and was assured by him that, painful as was the na- 
ture of the summons served on him, he should obey the 
mandate of the court, and must consequently testifj^ to all 
the material facts alleged in the public prints respecting 
Mr. Jefferson's conduct towards his lady. He further 
stated to my informant, (what was previously understood 
to be the fact,) that Mr. Madison was the person confi- 
dentially employed by Mr. Jefferson to effect, if possible, 
a reconciliation for the insult, and was the bearer of several 
letters to him on the subject. Having summoned colonel 
Walker and two or three other witnesses, my informant 
proceeded to the seat of Mr. Madison with a subpcena for 
his attendance. But while there that gentleman received 
a letter from the president, a part of which letter he read, 
acquainting him, (Mr. M.) that, in case he should be sub- 
poenaed his attendance would be unnecessary, as the in- 
dictment against Mr. Backus was to receive a q^iietus. 
The other witnesses summoned in Virginia were fur- 
nished with notifications of similar import, and conse- 
quently neither of them attended the court." This pas- 
sage is cited for the purpose of adding strength to the pre- 
sumption that Mr. Jefferson's declarations in his letter to 
Mr. Nicholas respecting these cases cannot be true. 



312 THE CHARACTER OF 



CHAPTER XVI. 

The Federalists believed Mr. Jefferson insincere and hypocritical — 
Professed great friendship for John Adams in a letter to Mrs. 
Adams, in 1804 — In a letter to general Washington, in 1791, he 
charges Mr. Adams with apostacy to monarchy — The friendly 
intercourse between them not interrupted by this apostacy, but 
by Mr. Adams's appointments to office at the close of his admin- 
istration— Apparent that Jefferson had, upon coming into the 
secretary of state's office, laid his plan to place himself at the 
head of the government — Hamilton, being a more formidable ob- 
stacle to his ambition than Adams, became the object of peculiar 
animosity — Correspondence between general Washington and 
Jefferson and Hamilton, in August, 1792, respecting dissensions 
in the cabinet — Washington's letter to Jefferson — Letter to Ham- 
ilton — Mr, Jefferson's answer, September, 1792 — Reasons for em- 
ploying Freneau — Objections to the constitution, that it wanted a 
bill of rights, (tec. — Says Hamilton's objection was, that it wanted 
a king and house of lords — Hamilton made great exertions in the 
formation and adoption of the constitution — Jefferson did nothing 
— Hamilton's answer to Washington's letter, August, 1792 — 
Washington's confidence in Hamilton never shaken by Jeffer- 
son's attempts to that end — Jefferson never appealed to the coun- 
try, as suggested in his letter. 

One great objection that the federalists had to Mr. Jef- 
ferson was, that they believed him to be habitually insin- 
cere and hypocritical — that in his professions of esteem, 
respect and even friendship, for many individuals, he was 
deceitful and hollow-hearted — that his devotion to the peo- 
ple's rights was affected for the purpose of gaining popu- 
larity, and opening the way for the accomplishment of his 
future views of personal aggrandizement. Hence they 
viewed his affectation of a superior regard for republican- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 313 

ism as designed to forward his plans for the establishment 
of a political party, for the purpose of gratifying his own 
ambitious feelings and projects. In pursuance of this gen- 
eral scheme of political selfishness, he had the assurance, 
in a sly and underhand manner, to charge his associates in 
the government, particularly Hamilton, Knox, and even 
Washington, with not only entertaining monarchical senti- 
ments, but some of them with the adoption of measure.-^ 
intended eventually to change the form of the government 
and introduce a monarchy in its stead. In his correspon- 
dence towards the close of his life, it has been seen by ex- 
tracts from his letters to Mrs. Adams, as well as to Mr. 
Adams himself, that he professed an old, long standing, 
cordial, and warm attachment to that gentleman — that a 
friendship which commenced in early life had been con- 
tinued through all the trials and vicissitudes of their pub- 
lic career; and finally, when both were advanced to ex- 
treme old age, it glowed with all the fervor of youth. 

In his letter to Mrs. Adams of June 18, 1804, which has 
been referred to in this work, and which contained the first 
overture for the renewal of their friendly intercourse, Mr. 
Jefl^erson says, " Mr. Adams's friendship and mine began 
at an earlier date. It accompanied us through long and 
important scenes. The diflTerent conclusions we had drawn 
from our political reading and reflections were not permit- 
ted to lessen mutual esteem ; each party being conscious 
they were the result of an honest conviction in the other." 
And he adds, " I can say with truth, that one act of Mr. 
Adams's life, and one only, ever gave me a moment's per- 
sonal displeasure." He then refers to the last appoint- 
ments by Mr. Adams, just as his administration was com- 
ing to a close. 

The letter from which these passages are copied, is da- 
ted, it will be recollected, in 1804. In a letter to general 
27 



314 THE CHARACTER OF 

Washington, written in 1791 — twenty-three years before, 
and but a little more than a year after he entered the office 
of secretary of slate — he charges Mr. Adams, in direct 
terms, with apostacy to hereditary monarchy and nobility. 
He docj:, indeed, express some apprehensions that the in- 
discretion of a printer may have committed him with Jm 
friend Mr. Adams, " for whom, as one of the most honest 
and disinterested men alive, he had a cordial esteem, in- 
creased by long habits of concurrence in opinion in the days 
of his republicanism, and even since his apostacy to heredi- 
tary monarchy and 7iobility, though we differ, we differ as 
friends should do.^' 

The charge of entertaining monarchical sentiments, ac- 
cording to Mr. Jefferson's view of the subject, was one of 
the most aggravated in the whole catalogue of political of- 
fences. In the case of general Hamilton, against whom 
he steadily and perse veringly alleged it, it was the basis 
of the deepest and most envenomed reproach. When wri- 
ting his note to the printer of the Rights of Man, he ex- 
presses his gratification that that work was to be printed, 
that something was likely to be said against the political 
heresies that had lately sprung up among us. In this last 
remark, he acknowledges he had in view the Discourses on 
Davila — a work of which it was well known Mr. Adams 
was the author. And yet, more than twenty years after- 
wards, when he was endeavoring, through a correspon- 
dence with Mrs. Adams, to cajole Mr. Adams to a recon- 
ciliation, after expressing the early and long continued 
friendship that had existed between them, he says, there 
never had been but a single act of his that had given him 
(Mr. Jefferson) personal displeastire. That act was, not 
his apostatizing from republicanism to monarchical princi- 
ples — not because Mr. Adams was plotting treason against 
the constitution and government of his country, by endeav- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 315 

oring to change it from a republic to a monarchy : these, it 
would seem, were not of sufficient importance to check or 
interrupt the tide of friendship which had so long flowed 
between them. It was a matter of deeper interest than 
these. It was the nomination of a number of distinguish- 
ed persons to be judges of the courts, or to other offices, 
whose only disqualification was that they were federalists 
— who, he says, were his ardent political enemies, froni 
whom he could expect no faithful co«nperation. Laying 
plots for the overthrow of the constitution and government 
with a design to change our system from a republic to a 
monarchy, gave him no personal uneasiness ; whilst the ap- 
pointment of federalists to office was a serious injury to 
his feelings, and a mark of personal hostility on the part of 
Mr. Adams. 

It is perfectly apparent from the contents of the letter 
from Mr. Jefferson to general Washington, that the for- 
mer had, immediately after coming into the government, 
laid the plan by which he intented to place himself at the 
head of the nation. That plan was to form a political 
party upon the captivating basis of republicanism in op- 
position to the federalists, to charge the latter with mo- 
narchical principles and designs, render thejTi suspected 
and odious, and establish himself and his followers as the 
ardent and exclusive friends of the people, and thus accom- 
plish the grand objects of his life, viz. personal popularity 
and political aggrandizement. In the case of general Ham- 
ilton, monarchical sentiments, in Mr. Jefferson's view, 
constituted a most atrocious offence against the nation. 
Similar sentiments, as it regarded Mr. Adams, though ori- 
ginally stamped with apostacy, formed nothing more seri- 
ous than an honest difference of opinion between friends. 
General Hamilton was obviously, in Mr. Jefferson's view, 
a much more formidable obstacle in the way of his ambi- 



316 THE CHARACTER OF 

tion, than Mr. Adams. Hence the extreme heinousness 
of the principles ascribed to the former beyond those of the 
latter. But the duplicity which could adopt such diflferent 
language, and express such different feelings, respecting 
the same person, as he did towards Mr. Adams, if there 
were no other proof to support the charge, would stamp 
him with deep and disgraceful dissimulation and hypocrisy. 

It has been seen, that Mr. Jefferson, by his own state- 
ments, charged general Hamilton frequently, in conversa- 
tion with general Washington, not only with entertaining 
monarchical sentiments, but having designs of changing 
the government of the United States into a monarchy. 
By the following correspondence it will appear, that on 
one occasion, at least, he put his sentiments on that subject 
into writing, and entered into many particulars to convince 
general Washington of the truth of his allegations. The 
dissensions in his cabinet, and particularly between the 
secretaries of state and the treasury, had, as early as the 
the year 1792, become so serious as not only to cause him 
much inconvenience, but to excite in his mind many fears 
that if continued they must result in very important con- 
sequences to the government. In order to avoid such an 
evil, and, if possible, to reconcile these high officers of the 
government, he addressed to each of them a letter on the 
subject, and received from each his answer. Neither of 
these documents appears in Mr. Jefferson's correspondence 
published since his death. They are all copied from gen- 
eral Washington's Writings, published by Mr. Sparks, in 
1836. 

The letter to Mr. Jefferson is dated the 23d of August, 
1792, and the following is an extract from it : — 

"How unfortunate, and how much to be regretted is it, 
that while we are encompassed on all sides with avowed 
enemies and insidious friends, internal dissensions should 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 317 

be harrowing and tearing our vitals. The latter, to me, 
is the most serious, the most alarming, and the most afflict- 
ing of the two ; and, without more charity for the opinions 
and acts of one another in governmental matters, or some 
more infallible criterion by which the truth of speculative 
opinions, before they have undergone the test of experi- 
ence, are to be forejudged, than has yet fallen to the lot of 
fallibility, I believe it will be difficult, if not impracticable, 
to manage the reins of government, or to keep the parts of 
it together;, for if, instead of laying our shoulders to the 
machine after measures are decided on, one pulls this way 
and another that, before the utility of the thing is fairly 
tried, it must inevitably be torn asunder; and in my opin- 
ion, the fairest prospect of happiness and prosperity that 
ever was presented to man will be lost perhaps forever. 

"My earnest wish and my fondest hope, therefore, is, 
that instead of wounding suspicions and irritating charges, 
there may be liberal allowances, mutual forbearances, and 
temporizing yieldings on all sides. Under the exercise 
of these, matters will go on smoothly, and, if possible, 
more prosperously. Without them, everything must rub; 
the wheels of government will clog ; our enemies will tri- 
umph, and by throvi^ing their weight into the disaffected 
scale, may accomplish the ruin of the goodly fabric we 
have been erecting." 

On the 26th of the same month, in the same year, he 
wrote a letter to general Hamilton, then secretary of the 
treasury, from which the following is an extract : — 

" Differences in political opinions are as unavoidable as, 
to a certain point, they may perhaps be necessary; but it 
is exceedingly to be regretted, that subjects cannot be dis- 
cussed with temper on the one hand, or decisions submit- 
ted to without having the motives which led to them im- 
27=^ 



318 THE CHARACTER OF 

properly implicaied on the oiher ; and this regret borders 
on chagrin, when we find that men of abilities, zealous 
patriots, having the same general objects in view, and the 
j*ame upright intentions to prosecute them, will not exer- 
cise more charily in deciding on the opinions and actions 
of one another. When matters get to such lengths, the 
imtural inference is, that both sides have strained the cords 
beyond their bearing, and that a middle course would be 
found the best until experience shall have decided on the 
right way, or (which is not to be expected, because it is 
denied to mortals) there shall be some infallible rule by 
which we could forejudge events. 

" Having premised these things, I would fain hope that 
liberal allowences will be made for the political opinions of 
each other; and instead of those wounding suspicions 
and irritating charges with which some of our gazettes 
are so strongly impregnated, and which cannot fail, if per- 
severed in, of pushing matters to extremity and thereby 
tearing the machine asunder, that there may be mutual 
forbearance and temporizing yielding on all sides. With- 
out these I do not see how the reins of government are to 
be managed, or how the union of the states can be much 
longer preserved. 

" How unfortunate would it be if a fabric so goodly, erect- 
ed under so many providential circumstances, and in its 
first stages having acquired such respectability, should, 
from diversity of sentiments or internal obstructions 
some of the acts of government, (for I cannot prevail on 
myself to believe that these measures are as yet the de- 
liberate acts of a determined party,) be brought to the 
verge of dissolution. Melancholy thought ! But, at the 
same time that it shows the consequences of diversified 
opinion when pushed with too much tenacity, it exhibits 
evidence also of the necessity of accommodation, and of 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 319 

the propriety of adopting such healing measures as may 
restore harniiony to the discordant members of the union 
and the governing powers of it." 

On the 9th of September, 1792, Mr. Jefferson replied to 
general Washington in a letter from which the following 
extract is taken : — 

" I now take the liberty of proceeding to that part of your 
letter wherein you notice the internal dissensions which 
have taken place within our government, and their disa- 
greeable effect on its movements. That such dissensions 
have taken place is certain, and even among those who are 
nearest to you in the administration. To no one have they 
given deeper concern than myself; to no one equal morti- 
fication at being myself a part of them. Though I take 
to myself no more than my share of the general observa- 
tions of your letter, yet I am so desirous even that you 
should know the whole truth, I believe no more than the 
truth, that I am glad to seize every occasion of developing 
to you whatever I do or think relative to the government, 
and shall therefore ask permission to be more lengthy now 
than the occasion particularly calls for, or would other- 
wise perhaps justify. 

" When 1 embarked in the government, it was with a 
determination to intermeddle not at all with the legisla- 
ture, and as little as possible with my co-departments. 
The first and only instance of variance from the former 
part of my resolution, I was duped into by the secretary 
of the treasury, and made a tool for forwarding his schemes, 
not then sufficiently understood by me ; and of all the 
errors of my political life, this has occasioned me the deep- 
est regret. It has ever been my purpose to explain this to 
you, when from being actors on the scene we shall have 
become uninterested spectators only. The second part of 
rny resolution has been religiously observed with the war 



320 



THE CHARACTER OF 



department ; and, as to that of the treasury, has never been 
farther swerved from than by the mere enunciation of my 
sentiments in conversation, and chiefly among those who, 
expressing the same sentiments, drew mine from me. 

"If it has been supposed that I have ever intrigued 
among the members of the legislature to defeat the plans 
of the secretary of the treasury, it is contrary to all truth. 
As I never had the desire to influence the members, so 
neither had I any other means than my friendship, which 
I valued too highly to risk by usurpations on their freedom 
of judgement and the conscientious pursuit of their own 
sense of duty. That I have utterly, in my private conver- 
sations, disapproved of the system of the secretary of the 
treasury, I acknowledge and avow ; and this was not mere- 
ly a speculative difference. His system flowed from prin- 
ciples adverse to liberty, and was calculated to undermine 
and demolish the republic, by creating an influence of his 
department over the members of the legislature. I saw 
this influence actually produced, and its first fruits to be 
the establishment of the great outlines of his project by the 
votes of the very persons, who, having swallowed his bait, 
were laying themselves out to profit by his plans; and 
that, had these persons \vithdrawn, as those interested in 
a question ever should, the vote of the disinterested major- 
ity was clearly the reverse of what they made it. These 
were no longer the votes then of the representatives of the 
people, but of deserters from the rights and interests of the 
people ; and it was impossible to consider their decisions, 
which had nothing in view but to enrich themselves, as 
the measures of the fair majority, which ought always to 
be respected. 

"If what was actually doing begat uneasiness in those 
who wished for virtuous government, what was further 
proposed was not less threatening to the friends of the con- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 321 

stitution. For, in a report on the subject of manufactures 
(still to be acted on) it was expressly assumed, that the 
general government has a right to exercise all powers 
which may be for the general welfare, that is to say, all the 
legitimate powers of government ; since no government 
has a legitimate right to do what is not for the welfare of 
the governed. There was indeed a sham limitation of the 
universality of this power to cases where money is to be 
employed. But about what is it that money cannot be em- 
ployed ? Thus the object of these plans taken together is 
to draw all the powers of government into the hands of 
the general legislature, to establish means for corrupting 
a sufficient corps in that legislature to divide the honest 
votes, and preponderate by their own the scale which suit- 
ed, and to have that corps under the command of the sec- 
retary of the treasury for the purpose of subverting step 
by step the principles of the constitution, which he has so 
often declared to be a thing of nothing, which must be 
changed. 

" Such views might have justified something more than 
mere expressions of dissent, beyond which, nevertheless, I 
never went. Has abstinence from the department commit- 
ted to me been equally observed by him ? To say nothing 
of other interferences equally known, in the case of the two 
nations with which we have the most intimate connexions, 
France and England, my system was to give some satis- 
factory distinctions to the former, which might induce them 
to abate their severities against our commerce. I have al- 
ways supposed this coincided with your sentiments ; yet 
the secretary of the treasury, by his cabals with members 
of the legislature, and by high toned declamation on other 
occasions, has forced down his own system, which was 
exactly the reverse. He undertook, of his own authority, 
the conferences with the ministers of these two nations, 



322 THE CHARACTER OF 

and was on every consultation provided with some report 
of a conversation with the one or the other of them adapt- 
ed to his views. 

" These views thus made to prevail, their execution fell 
of course to me; and I can safely appeal to you, who have 
seen all my letters and proceedings, whether I have not 
carried them into execution as sincerely as if they had been 
my own, though I ever considered them as inconsistent 
with the honor and interest of our country. That they 
have been inconsistent with our interest is but too fatally 
proved by the stab to our navigation given by the French. 
So that if the question be, by whose fault is it that colonel 
Hamilton and myself have not drawn together? the an- 
swer will depend on that to two other questions. Whose 
principles of administration best justify, by their purity, 
conscientious adherence ? And which of us has, notwith- 
standing, stepped farthest into the control of the depart- 
ment of the other? 

" To this justification of opinions, expressed in the way 
of conversation, against the views of colonel Hamilton, I 
beg leave to add some notice of his late charges against 
me in Fenno's Gazette ; for neither the style, matter, nor 
venom of the pieces alluded to can leave a doubt of their 
author. Spelling my name and character at full length to 
the public, while he conceals his own under the signature 
of" An American," he charges me, first, with having writ- 
ten letters from Europe to my friends to oppose the present 
constitution while depending; secondly, with a desire of 
not paying the public debt; thirdly, with setting up a paper 
to decry and slander the government. 

" The first charge is most false. No man in the United 
States, I suppose, approved of every tittle in the constitu- 
tion ; no one, I believe, approved more of it than I did ; and 
more of it was certainly disapproved by my accuser than 



THOMAS JEFFERSON.' 323 

by me, and of its parts most vitally republican. Of this 
the few letters I wrote on the subject (not half a dozen, I 
believe,) will be a proof; and for my own satisfaction and 
justification, I must tax you with the reading of them when 
I return to where they are. You will there see that my 
objection to the constitution was, that it wanted a bill of 
rights, securing freedom of religion, freedom of the press, 
freedom from standing armies, trial by jury, and a constant 
habeas corpus act. Colonel Hamilton's was, that it want- 
ed a king and house of lords. The sense of America 
has approved my objection, and added the bill of rights, not 
the king and lords. I also thought a longer term of ser- 
vice, insusceptible of renewal, would have made a presi- 
dent more independent. My country has thought other- 
wise, and I have acquiesced implicitly. He wished the 
general government should have power to make laws bind- 
ing the states in all cases whatsoever. Our country has 
thought otherwise. Has he acquiesced ? Notwithstand- 
ing my wish for a bill of rights, my letters strongly urged 
the adoption of the constitution, by nine states at least, to 
secure the good it contained. I at first thought that the 
best method of securing the bill of rights wouldbe, for four 
states to hold off till such a bill should be agreed to. But 
the moment I saw Mr. Hancock's proposition to pass the 
constitution as it stood, and give perpetual instructions to 
the representatives of every state to insist on a bill of 
rights, I acknowledged the superiority of his plan, and ad- 
vocated universal adoption. 

" The second charge is equally untrue. My whole cor- 
respondence while in France, and every word, letter and 
act on the subject since my return, prove that no man is 
more ardently intent to see the public debt soon and sa- 
credly paid off than I am. This exactly marks the differ- 
ence between colonel Hamihon's views and mine, that I 



324 THE CHARACTER OF 

would wish the debt paid to-morrow : he wishes it never 
to be paid, but always to be a thing wherewith to corrupt 
and manage the legislature. 

" Thirdly, I have never inquired what number of sons, 
relations, and friends of senators, representatives, printers, 
or other useful partisans colonel Hamilton has provided 
for among the hundred clerks of his department, the thou- 
sand excisemen, custom-house officers, loan officers, &c. 
&c., appointed by him, or at his nod, and spread over the 
Union : nor could ever have imagined, that the man, who 
has the shuffling of millions backwards and forwards from 
paper into money and money into paper, from Europe to 
America and America to Europe, the dealing out of treas- 
ury secrets among his friends in what time and measure 
he pleases, and who never slips an occasion of making 
friends vi^ith his means ; that such a one, I say, would 
have brought forward a charge against me for having ap- 
pointed the poet Freneau translating clerk to my office 
with a salary of two hundred and fifty dollars a year. 

" The fact stands thus. While the government was at 
New-York, I was applied to on behalf of Freneau to know 
if there was any place within my department to which he 
could be appointed. I answered, there were but four 
clerkships, all of which I found full, and continued with- 
out any change. When we removed to Philadelphia, Mr. 
Pintard, the translating clerk, did not choose to remove 
with us. His office then became vacant. I was again ap- 
plied to there for Freneau, and had no hesitation to pro- 
mise the clerkship for him. I cannot recollect whether it 
was at the same time, or afterwards, that I was told he had 
a thought of setting up a newspaper there ; but whether 
then, or afterwards, I considered it as a circumstance of 
some value, as it might enable me to do what I had long 
wished to have done, that is, to have the material parts of 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 325 

the Leyden Gazette brought under your eye and that of the 
public, in order to possess yourself and ihem of a juster 
view of the affairs of Europe than could be obtained from 
any other public source. This I had ineffectually attempt- 
ed through the press of Mr. Fenno while in New-York, 
selecting and translating passages myself at first, then hav- 
ing it done by Mr. Pintard, the translating clerk. But 
they found their way too slowly into Mr. Fenno's papers. 
Mr. Backe essayed it for me in Philadelphia ; but his, 
being a daily paper, did not circulate sufficienlly in other 
states. He even tried, at my request, the plan of a weekly 
paper of recapitulation from his daily paper, in hopes that 
that might go into the other stales ; but in this, too, we 
failed. 

" Freneau, as translating clerk and the printer of a pe- 
riodical paper likely to circulate through the states, (uni- 
ting in one person the parts of Pintard and Fenno,) re- 
vived my hopes that the thing could at length be eflected. 
On the establishment of his paper, therefore, I furnished 
him with the Leyden Gazettes, with an expression of my 
wish tliat he would always translate and publish the ma- 
terial intelligence they contained ; and have continued to 
furnish ihem from time to time as regularly as I received 
them. But as to any other direction or indication of my 
wish how his press should be conducted, what sort of intelli- 
gence he should give, what essays encourage, I can pro- 
test, in the presence of Heaven, that I never did, by mysel/ 
or any other, directly or indirectly, write, dictate or procure 
any one sentence or sentiment to be inserted in his or any 
other gazette to which my name was not affixed, or that 
of my office, I surely need not except here a thing so 
foreign to the present subject as a little paragraph about 
our Algerine captives which I put once into Fenno's pa- 
per, 

28 



326 THE CHARACTER OP 

" Freneau's propositions to publish a paper having been 
about the time the writings of Publicola and the Dis- 
courses ON Davila had a good deal excited the public at- 
tention, I took it for granted, from Freneau's character, 
which had been marked as that of a good whig, that he 
would give free place to pieces written against the aristo- 
cratical and monarchical principles these papers had in- 
culcated. This having been in my mind, it is likely enough 
I may have expressed it in conversation with others; 
though I do not recollect that 1 did. To Freneau I think 
I could not, because I had still seen him but once, and 
that was at a public table, at breakfast, at Mrs. Ellsworth's, 
as I passed through New York the last year ; and I can 
safely declare that my expectations looked only to the 
chastisement of the aristocratical and monarchical writers, 
and not to any criticisms on the proceedings of the gov- 
ernment. 

" Colonel Hamilton can see no motive for any appoint- 
ment but that of making a convenient pariizan. But you, 
sir, who have received from me the recommendations of a 
Rittenhouse, Barlow, Paine, will believe that talents and 
science are sufficient motives with me in appointments to 
which they are fitted ; and that Freneau, as a man of gen- 
ius, might find a preference in my eye to be a translating 
clerk, and make good title, moreover, to the little aids I 
could give him as the editor of a gazette, by procuring 
subscriptions to his paper as I did, some before it appeared, 
and as I have with pleasure done for the labors of other 
men of genius. I hold it to be one of the distinguishing 
excellences of an elective over hereditary successions, that 
the talents which nature has provided in sufficient propor- 
tion, should be selected by the society fot the government 
of their afTairs rather than that this should be transmitted 
through the loins of knaves and fools, passing from the 
debauchees of the table to those of the bed/ 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 327 

" Colonel Hamilton, alias " Plain Facts," says, that Fre- 
rreau's salary began before he resided in Philadelphia. I 
do not know what quibble he may have in reserve on the 
word " residence.^^ He may mean to include under that 
idea the removal of his family ; for I believe he removed, 
himself, before his family did, to Philadelphia. But no 
act of mine gave commencement to his salary before he so 
far took up his abode in Philadelphia, as to be sufficiently 
in readiness for the duties of his office. As to the merits 
or demerits of his paper, they certainly concern me not. 
He and Fenno are rivals for the public favor; the one 
courts them by flattery, the other by censure ; and I be- 
lieve it will be admitted thai the one has been as servile 
as the other severe. But is not the dignity, and even 
decency of government committed, when one of its prin- 
cipal ministers enlists himself as an anonymous writer or 
paragraphist for either the one or the other of them ? No 
government ought to be without censors ; and where the 
press is free, no one ever will. If virtuous, it need not fear 
the fair operation of attack and defence. Nature has giv- 
en to man no other means of sifting out the truth, either in 
religion, law or politics. I think it as honorable to the 
government neither to know nor notice its sycophants or 
censors, as it would be undignified and criminal to pamper 
the former and persecute the latter. 

^' When I came into this office, it was with a resolution 
to retire from it as soon as I could with decency. It pret- 
ty early appeared to me, that the proper moment would be 
the first of those epochs at which the constitution seems to 
have contemplated a periodical change or removal of the 
public servants. In this I was confirmed by your resolu- 
tion respecting the same period, from which, however, I 
am happy in hoping you have departed. 1 look to that pe- 
riod with the longing of a wave-worn mariner, who has at 



328 THE CHARACTER OF 

length the land in view, and shall count the days and hours 
which still lie between me and it. In the mean while my 
main object will be to wind up the business of my office, 
avoiding- as much as possible all new enterprises. With 
the affairs of the legislature, as I never did intermeddle, 
so I certainly shall not now begin. I am more desirous to 
predispose everything for the repose to which I am with- 
drawing, than expose it to be disturbed by newspaper con- 
tests. 

" If these however cannot be avoided altogether, yet a re- 
gard for your quiet will be a sufficient motive for deferring 
it till I become merely a private citizen, when the propri- 
ety or impropriety of what I may say or do may fall on 
myself alone. I may then, too, avoid the charge of mis- 
applying that time which, now belonging to those who 
employ me, should be wholly devoted to their service. If 
my own justification or the interests of the republic shall 
require it, I reserve to myself the right of then appealing 
to my country, subscribing my name to whatever I write, 
and using with freedom and truth the facts and names 
necessary to place the cause in its just form before that tri- 
bunal. To a thorough disregard of the honors and emol- 
uments of office, I join as great a value for the esteem of 
my countrymen ; and conscious of having merited it by 
an integrity which connot be reproached, and by an enthu- 
siastic devotion to their rights and liberty, I will not suffer 
my retirement to be clouded by the slanders of a man 
whose history, from the moment history can stoop to no- 
tice him, is a tissue of machinations against the liberty of 
the country which has not only received and given him 
bread, but heaped its honors on his head." 

There are some things in this letter that are worthy of 
notice. 

Mr. Jefferson complains much in it of general Hamil- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 329 

ton's interference in the business of the department of state; 
while on his part, he avers, that he never meddled with 
the concerns of the treasury, any further than to utter ex- 
pressions of dissent from the measures proposed by the 
head of that department. On this subject he uses the 
following language : — " To say nothing of other interfer- 
ences equally known, in the case of the two nations with 
which we have the most intimate connections, France and 
England, my system was to give some satisfactory distinc- 
tions to the former, which might induce them to abate 
their severities against our commerce. I have always sup- 
posed this coincided with your sentiments ; yet the secre- 
tary of the treasury, by his cabals with members of the 
legislature and by high toned declamation on other occa- 
sions, has forced down his own system, which was exactly 
the reverse." 

On what grounds Mr. Jefferson formed the opinion that 
general Washington entertained the same sentiments with 
himself respecting the relations that ought to subsist be- 
tween this country and France, it is not easy to ascertain. 
General Washington's wishes, as far as they can be gath- 
ered from his system of policy, and the measures whi^h 
he adopted whilst at the head of the government, were for 
the observance of a strict neutrality between those two 
great rival powers, to do exact justice, and maintain a strict 
friendship with both. That he ever entertained, for a mo- 
ment, a disposition to purchase the good will of France, by 
giving " satisfactory distinctions " to that nation, over Great 
Britain, and especially for the purpose of inducing the 
French to " abate their severity against our commerce," 
cannot, in justice to his character, and from a regard to the 
honor of the United States, be admitted for a moment. 
That great man could never have consented to degrade 
the nation over which he presided by purchasing immu^ 
28^ 



330 THE CHARACTER OF 

nity from foreign injustice, or foreign resentment, by pay- 
ing tribute to any power, and especially, in such a servile 
and dastardly manner as is here suggested. He would 
have run the risk of any " stab " which they might have 
attempted to give " to our navigation," rather than debase 
his country before any power on earth. 

Mr. Jefferson goes much at length, in this letter, into 
the reasons why he appointed Philip Freneau translating 
clerk in the department of state. His objects, according 
to his own explanation of them, were principally two — to 
reward his poetical genius, and to have a man at hand 
who could translate and publish articles, from time to time, 
from the Leyden Gazette. With regard to the first, it is 
not easy to imagine what precise value poetical talents 
possessed in Mr. Jefferson's estimation. Freneau's talents 
in that department of literature were far from being extra- 
ordinary ; but if ihey were suited to Mr. Jefferson's taste, 
and as poets deal largely in fiction it is probable they were, 
they may have been worth, in his view, two hundred and 
fifty dollars a year. Of how much importance the publi- 
cations in a Dutch newspaper were to general Washington, 
for whose particular benefit Mr. Jefferson seems to have 
been desirous of introducing the contents of that gazette 
into this country, or to the government, cannot now be as- 
certained. It is probable they were of a revolutionary 
character, and friendly to French principles, or he would 
not have been so anxious to bring them to the knowledge 
of his countrymen. 

But it is difficult to avoid the suspicion notwithstand- 
ing the pains taken in this letter to shut it out of view, 
that Mr. Jefferson, in patronizing Freneau, had more im- 
mediate reference to the importance of the newspaper he 
was establishing at the seat of government than he had to 
his poetical talents, or the translation and publication of 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 331 

the matter in the Leyden Fazette. The character of his 
paper has already been alluded to. It was a vehicle of 
the most virulent and scurrilous abuse of the government 
of this country, and even of general Washington himself, 
and at the same time was devoted to the furtherance of 
Mr. Jefferson's ambitious views and interests. And it has 
been seen in what light Mr. Jefferson considered it, when 
upon general Washington's mentioning it in conversation 
with him, as of an abusive and malignant character. " He 
adverted," says Mr. Jefferson, " to a piece in Freneau's pa- 
per of yesterday ; he said he despised all their attacks up- 
on him personally, but that there had never been an act of 
the government, not meaning in the executive line only, 
but in any line, which that paper had not abused." And 
Mr. Jefferson then adds — " He was evidently sore and 
warm, and I took his intention to be, that I should inter- 
pose in some way with Freneau, perhaps withdraw his ap- 
pointment of translating clerk to my office. But I will not 
do it. His paper has saved our constitution, which was 
galloping fast into monarchy, and has been checked by no 
one means so powerfully as by that paper." To say noth- 
ing of the gross indelicacy of this passage towards gener- 
al Washington, it will be recollected, that it related to a 
person for whom Mr. Jefferson professed to entertain the 
highest esteem and respect, and who had it in his power, 
had he thought i expedient to exercise it, to remove him 
from the office which he held, and thus rid himself of the 
annoyance derived from both the principal and the agent. 
In reply to the charge of having been opposed to .he 
constitution, which had been made against him in a news- 
paper, and which he ascribes to general Hamilton, he says, 
" My objection to the constitution was, that it wanted a 
bill of rights, securing freedom of religion, freedom of the 
press, freedom from standing armies, trial by jury, and a 



332 ^ THE CHARACTER OF 

constant habeas corpus act. Colonel Hamilton's was, that 
it wanted a king and house of lords" 

Mr. Jefferson, as will be seen by the extracts from his 
printed works in this volume, instating his objections to the 
constitution, frequently mentioned the want of the per- 
petual security of the writ of habeas corpus as one. And 
yet he was the first president of the United States, under 
whom a proposition was made to suspend its operation ; 
and a bill, growing out of a confidential message to the 
senate of the United States, actually passed that body, sus- 
pending the habeas corpus, on the 23d of January, 1807. 
This measure which was professedly intended to aid the 
government in suppressing what was called the conspiracy 
of Aaron Burr, was adopted in the senate the day after 
the delivery of a message to both houses on that subject, 
from the general tenor of which it was apparent, that 
whatever danger had threatened the union from that com- 
bination, it had passed away, and some of the persons con- 
cerned in it as principals had been arrested at New Orleans, 
and sent as prisoners to the seat of government, in order 
to be tried for the crimes alleged against them. This ex- 
travagant measure therefore had become altogether unne- 
cessary. 

But Mr. Jefferson states explicitly in this letter to gener- 
al Washington, that general Hamilton's objection to the 
constitution was, " that it wanted a king and house of 
lords." That this charge was not true, is absolutely cer- 
tain, as general Hamilton never attempted to accomplish 
such an object. Nor does Mr. Jefferson, in the multitude 
of instances, and the great variety of forms, in which he 
accuses general Hamilton of monarchical principles and 
propensities, produce a particle of evidence in support of 
the charges. If he relied on the general project of a con- 
stitution which general Hamilton presented to the conven- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 333 

tion for their consideration, and which is published in this 
work, it does not in any measure prove the allegation. In- 
deed, there is not now, and there never was, any credible 
evidence before the public, that general Hamilton ever 
made any specific objection to the constitution, or ever en- 
tertained such a wish. On the contrary, he supported it in 
the general convention by which it was formed ; he joined 
in recommending it, under his own signature, to the peo- 
ple of the United States ; he exerted his great talents 
through the press to prepare the public mind for its favora- 
ble reception ; and it was undoubtedly, in a great degree, 
owing to his influence and exertions, that it was adopted 
by the convention of the staie of New York. To set off 
against this array of efforts in the formation and establish- 
ment of the constitution, Mr. Jefferson cannot boast of a 
single exertion of talent or influence, either in its forma- 
tion or its adoption, in its favor. He contented himself 
with stating to his friends and correspondents, objections 
of divers kinds, and yielded to some things in it a cold 
and apparently reluctant assent. And yet, he has the har- 
dihood to bring this weighty accusation against general 
Hamilton before general Washington, who was president 
of the convention which framed the constitution, and who, 
of course, must have known every act, proposition and 
project of general Hamilton's before that body ; and who 
had, besides, witnessed his conduct as a member of his cab- 
inet after the government was organized and had com- 
menced its operations. 

Mr. Jefferson endeavors, in this letter, to satisfy general 
Washington, that he never attempted, whilst he was sec- 
retary of state, to intrigue with the members of congress, 
to defeat the plans of the secretary of treasury ; and he 
says, he never had a wish to influence them in their pub- 



334 THE CHARACTER OF 

lie duties, at the same time, he acknowledges, that in pri- 
vate conversations he wholly disapproved of the system of 
that officer. The case does not seem to admit of much 
further effort at intrigue than the expression of opinions 
in private conversation. And as his opinions usually had 
the force of law with his adherents, he admits all that 
was necessary to render him liable lo the general charge 
of having endeavored to influence members in their legis- 
lative conduct. And when his famous commercial report, 
made just as he was retiring from office, is remembered, 
and the great pains he took afterwards to excite opposition 
to the British treaty, and the alien and sedition laws — the 
latter while he was vice-president — it will require no great 
stretch of credulity to believe, that he was not entirely qui- 
escent respecting the course of the public affairs alluded to, 
at a time when he was on the spot, and certainly took a 
deep interest in their general character. His uniform and 
vindictive opposition to general Hamilton, will always 
render him liable, at least, to the suspicion. 

General Hamilton's answer to general Washington's let- 
ter of August 26, 1792, is as follows : — " I have the pleas- 
ure of your private letter of the 26th of August. The 
feelings and views which are manifested in that letter, are 
such as I expected would exist. And I most sincerely re- 
gret the causes of the uneasy sensations you experience. 
It is my most anxious wish, as far as may depend upon 
me, to smooth the path of your administration, and to ren- 
der it prosperous and happy. And if any prospect shall 
open of healing or terminating the differences which exist, 
I shall most cheerfully embrace it ; though I consider my- 
self as the deeply injured party. The recommendation of 
such a spirit is worthy of the moderation and wisdom 
which dictated it. And if your endeavors should prove 
unsuccessful, I do not hesitate to say, that in my opinion 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 335 

the period is not remote, when the public good will require 
SUBSTITUTES for the differing members of your administra- 
tion. The continuance of a division there must destroy 
the energy of government, which will be little enough 
with the strictest union. On my part there will be a most 
cheerful acquiescence in such a result. 

" I trust, sir, that the greatest frankness has always 
marked, and will always mark, every step of my conduct 
towards you. In this disposition I cannot conceal from 
you, that I have had some instrumentality of late in the re- 
taliations, which have fallen upon certain public characters, 
and that I find myself placed in a situation not to be able 
to recede for the present. 

" I considered myself as compelled to this conduct by 
reasons public as well as personal, of the most cogent na- 
ture. I know that I have been an object of uniform op- 
position from Mr. Jefferson, from the moment of his com- 
ing to the city of New York to enter upon his present of- 
fice. 1 know from the most authentic sources, that I have 
been the frequent subject of the most unkind whispers and 
insinuations from the same' quarter. I have long seen 
formed a party in the legislature under his auspices, bent 
upon my subversion. I cannot doubt from the evidence I 
possess, that the National Gazette was instituted by him 
for political purposes, and that one leading object of it has 
been to render me, and all the measures connected with 
my department, as odious as possible. 

"Nevertheless, I can truly say that, except explanations 
to confidential friends, I never, directly or indirectly, retal- 
iated or countenanced retaliation till very lately. I can 
even assure you, I was instrumental in perverting a very 
severe and systematic attack upon Mr. Jefl^erson by an as- 
sociation of two or three individuals, in consequence of 
.the persecution which he brought upon the vice-president, 



336 THE CHARACTER OF 

by his indirect and light letter to the printer transmitting 
Paine's pamphlet. 

" As long as 1 saw no danger to the government from 
the machinations which were going on, I resolved to be a 
silent sufferer of the injuries which were done me. I de- 
termined to avoid giving occasion to anything which could 
manifest to the world dissensions among the principal char- 
acters of the government; a thing which can never hap- 
pen without weakening its hands, and in some degree 
throwing a stigma upon it. 

" But when I no longer doubted, that there was a formed 
party deliberately bent upon the subversion of measures, 
which in its consequences would subvert the government; 
when I saw that the undoing of the funding system in par- 
ticular (which, whatever may be the original merits of 
that system, would prostrate the credit and honor of the 
nation, and bring the government into contempt with that 
description of men who are in every society the only firm 
supporters of the government.) was an avowed object of 
the party, and that all possible pains were taking to pro- 
duce that effect by rendering it odious to the body of the 
people, I considered it as a duty to endeavor to resist the 
torrent, and, as an effectual means to this end, to draw 
aside the veil from the principal actors. To this strong 
impulse, to this decided conviction, I have yielded. And 
I think events will prove that I have judged rightly. 

" Nevertheless, I pledge my honor to you, sir, that if you 
shall hereafter form a plan to reunite the members of your 
administration upon some steady principle of co-operation, 
I will faithfully concur in executing it during my contin- 
uance in office — and I will not, directly or indirectly, say 
or do a thing that shall endanger a feud." 

Nothwithstanding the very artful and labored attempt, 
in Mr. Jefferson's letter, to lower general Hamilton's prin- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 337 

ciples and character in general Washington's estimation, 
it has been seen by the letter from the latter to the former 
upon his leaving the treasury department, it was entirely 
without effect. That event occurred nearly two years af- 
ter the date of this correspondence, and from the language 
of the letter alluded to, which will be found in this work, 
general Hamilton carried with him into retirement the full- 
est confidence, as well as the most sincere esteem and res- 
pect, of general Washington. 

Nor is it known that Mr. Jefferson ever made his threat- 
ened appeal to the country, under his own signature, in or- 
der to place his cause before that tribunal. Whether his 
want of success in convincing general Washington of gen- 
eral Hamilton's treasonable designs against the country 
discouraged him from an effort with the people, or he be- 
came convinced that the safer, and it was certainly the 
more characteristic mode, that of retailing his slanders 
through the medium of a posthumous publication, would 
be the more discreet course to pursue for the attainment of 
his object, will be left to the reader's judgement to decide. 



29 



338 THE CHARACTER OF 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Mr. Jefferson made use of unworthy means to gain popularity — 
Alleges that he had more confidence in the people than general 
Washington had ; which was the only point on which they dif- 
fered—He assumed the title of " Friend of the People "—Dress- 
ed plainly — affected unassuming manners — professed never to 
have v;ritten a word for newspapers — He urged others to write 
— In one instance he wrote himself, but proposed to procure 
somebody to father it — Tells Madison he must take up his pen 
in reply to Hamilton— Letter to E. Pendleton, Jan. 1799. urges 
him to write on the negociation with France — Letter to Madison, 
and calls upon him to write — The federalists viewed Jefferson 
as an unbeliever in Christianity — Letter to Dr. Priestly, March, 
1804 — Letter to Dr. Rush, April, 1803 — estimate of the merits 
of the doctrines of Jesus, compared with the others — Letter to J. 
Adams, August, 1813— Letter to W. Short, April, 1820— Jef- 
ferson a materialist ; Jesus on the side of spiritualism — Paul the 
first corrupter of the doctrines of Jesus — Letter to Short, Aug. 
1820 — The God of the Jews cruel, vindictive, capricious, and 
unjust — Letter to J. Adams, April, 1823 — The three first verses 
of John, 1st chapter, mistranslated— Jefferson not a Christian — 
doubtful whether he believed in a God — His translation of John 
1st absurd — Recapitulation of the subjects in the work — Conclu- 



Mr. Jefferson, like all other demagogues, made use of 
unworthy, indirect, and servile means to gain popular fa- 
vor, with the view of accomplishing his ambitious projects. 
In one of his letters quoted in this work, he says, the only 
point in which general Washington aud he differed in opin- 
ion, was, that he had more confidence in the natural integri- 
ty of the people, and in the safety and extent -to which they 
might trust themselves with a control over their govern- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 339 

ment, than general Washington had. Governing his con- 
duct through life by this confidence, he courted popular fa- 
vor by the most fulsome flattery, and the most obsequious 
"adulation. He early adopted the captivating title of the 
" Friend of the People,"" asserted not only their right but 
their capacity for what he called self- government, exhib- 
ited himself in public in the plainest garb, and with the 
most unassuming manners declaimed with much earnest- 
ness against pomp and show, as being inconsistent with 
republican simplicity, and indicative of an aristocratic and 
even of a monarchical tendency ; and on all occasions, pro- 
fessed the greatest anxiety for the liberties, privileges, and 
security of the people. So firmly fixed was this habit of 
seeking popularity among the lov/er classes of the commu- 
nity, that it was manifested on various occasions, even at 
a late period of his life, when it might naturally have been 
expected bis thoughts would have been occupied with sub- 
jects of more importance. In a letter to Elbridge Gerry, 
dated June 11, 1812, when speaking of the political con- 
dition of Massachusetts, he says, " But I trust that such 
perverseness will not be that of the honest and well mean- 
ing mass of the federalists of Massachusetts ; and that 
when the questions of separation and rebellion shall be 
nakedly proposed to them, the Gores and the Pickerings 
will find their levees crowded with silk-stocking gentry 
but no yeomanry; an army of ofHcers, without soldiers." 
And in a letter to the Marquis de La Fayette, dated in Jan- 
uary, 1815, he says, " The yeomanry of the United States 
are not the canaille of Paris. We might safely give them 
leave to go through the United States recruiting their 
ranks, and I am satisfied they could not raise one single 
regiment, (gambling merchants and silk-stocking clerks ex- 
cepted,) who would support them in any eflfort to separate 
from the union." Such language would have better be- 



340 THE CHARACTER OF 

come an electioneering ofRce-hunter, when addressing the 
low rabble of a city, than a man who had held the office 
of president of the United States, and was well advanced 
beyond seventy years of age. But it may serve to point 
out the source of the modern policy of the leading parti- 
zans and demagogues of this country, in arraying the poor 
in a warfare against the rich, and exciting the low and vul- 
gar passions of the worthless members of the community 
against talents, character and property. 

The practice of making use of low artifice, to promote 
his own objects of popularity and ambition, was manifest- 
ed by him in a variety of ways, and on different occa- 
sions, as is sufficiently apparent from many passages of 
his correspondence. 

In a letter from Mr. Jefferson to general Washington, 
dated June 19th, 1796, he says,"! have formerly men- 
tioned to you, that from a very early period of my life, I 
have laid it down as a rule of conduct never to write a 
word for the public papers. From this I have never 
departed in a single instance ; and on a late occasion, when 
all the world seemed to be writing, besides a rigid adher- 
ence to my own rule, I can say with truth, that not a line 
for the press was ever communicated to me by any other, 
except a single petition referred for my correction ; which I 
did not correct, however, though the contrary, as I have 
heard, was said in a public place, by one person through 
error, through malice by another." This declaration of 
his never having written for the newspapers was repeated 
so often in Mr. Jefferson's letters, that the conclusion is 
forced upon the mind, that he viewed this species of absti- 
nence as highly meritorious. There is, however, a legal 
maxim purporting, that any act which a man procures to 
be done by another person, is considered as having been 
done by himself; and of course, the principal, is held to 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 341 

be responsible for the acts of the agent. In a letter from 
Mr. Jeiferson to James Madison, dated August 3d, 1797, 
he urges the latter to visit him, as he is anxious to consult 
with him on several matters, one of which he says is, 
" the subject of a petition now enclosed to you, to be pro- 
posed to our district, on the late presentment of our repre- 
sentative by the grand jury ; the idea which it brings for- 
ward is still conjintd to my own breast. It has never been 
mentioned to any mortal, because I first wished your opin- 
ion on the expediency of the measure. If you approve it, 
I shall propose to =^ ^ =^ or some other, to father it, and to 
present it to the counties at their general muster. This 
will be in time for our assembly. The presentment going 
in the public papers just at the moment when congress 
was together, produced a great efTact both on its friends 
and foes in that body, very much to the disheartening and 
mortification of the latter. I wish this petition, if ap- 
proved, to arrive there under the same circumstances, to 
produce the counter effect so wanting for their gratification. 
I could have wished to receive it from you again at our 
court on Monday, because ^ ^ ^ and =^ ^ =^ will be there, 
and might also be consulted, and commence measures for 
putting it into motion." In a letter to the same, dated Jan- 
uary 3, 1798, he says, " Monroe's book is considered as 
masterly by all those who are not opposed in principle, 
and it is deemed unanswerable. An answer, however, is 
commenced in Fenno's paper of yesterday, under the sig- 
nature of Scipio. The real author not yet conjectured. As 
I take these papers merely to preserve them, I will forward 
them to you, as you can easily return them to me on my 
arrival at home ; for I shall not see you on my way, as 
mean to go by the eastern shore and Petersburg. Per- 
haps the paragraphs in some of these abominable papers 
may draw from you now and then a squib. ^^ In another 
29^ 



342 THE CHARACTER OF 

letter to the same, dated April 5, 1798, he says, " You 
will see in Fenno, two numbers of a paper signed Mar- 
cellus. They promise much mischief, and are ascribed, 
without any difference of opinion, to Hamilton. You 
must, my dear sir, take up your pen agairist this champion. 
You know the ingenuity of his talents ; and there is not 
a person but yourself who can foil him. For heaven's 
sake, then, take up your pen, and do not desert the public 
cause altogether." 

In a letter to Edmund Pendleton, dated January 29, 
1799, after mentioning the effects produced by an ad- 
dress from that gentleman which had been running 
through the republican papers, and what he calls the 
wicked use that had been made of the French negotiation, 
and saying that a short and simple recapitulation of the 
correspondence was necessary, which should be levelled to 
every capacity, he says, " Nobody in America can do it so 
well as yourself, in the same character of the father of 
your country, or any form you like better, and so concise, 
as, omitting nothing material, may yet be printed in hand- 
bills, of which we could print and disperse ten or twelve 
thousand copies under letter covers, through all the United 
States, by the members of congress when they return 
home." In a letter to James Madison, dated February 5, 
1799, he says, " A piece published in Bache's paper on 
foreign influence has had the greatest currency and effect. 
To an extraordinary first impression, they have been 
obliged to make a second, and of an extraordinary number. 
It is such things as these the public want. They say so 
from all quarters, and that they wish to hear reason in- 
stead of disgusting blackgiiardism. The public sentiment 
being now on the creep, and many heavy circumstances 
about to fall into the republican scale, we are sensible that 
;this summer is the season for systematic energies and sac- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 343 

rifices. The engine is the press. Every man must lay 
his purse and his pen under contribution. As to the for- 
mer, it is possible I may be obliged to assume something 
for you. As to the latter, let me pray and beseech you to 
set apart a certain portion of every post-day to write what 
may be proper for the public. Send it to me while here, 
and when I go away I will let you know to whom you 
may send, so that your name shall be sacredly secret. 
You can render such incalculable services in this way as 
to lessen the effect of our loss of your presence here." 

Whether Mr. Jefferson's declaration, that he never wrote 
a word for a newspaper in his life, be true or not, is a point 
that need not be determined. Every person who shall 
read the foregoing extracts from his letters, will form his 
own opinion. That he was extremely urgent with his 
friends to perform that service for his party and their prin- 
ciples, and stimulated them to the duty by every motive 
that he could lay before them, cannot be denied; and in 
one instance, that with characteristic caution and cunning, 
he had prepared an article, in the shape of a petition, in- 
tended to counteract the effects of a presentment of a grand 
jury, and was expressly designed to be published in the 
newspapers, at a critical moment which was expected to 
arrive, is certain from his own declaration. He did not, it 
is true, mean to acknowledge it as his own offspring. But 
it is said to have been no uncommon thing for him to be 
placed in a similar situation, with regard even to those who 
might have claimed a nearer relationship to him than such 
as is formed by the artificial ties of political partizanship, 
but who he did not openly acknowledge as such. As far 
forth as these intimate friends and councillors of his en- 
gaged, at his solicitation, in newspaper disquisitions, he 
is as much responsible for their productions, according to 
the maxim above alluded to, as if they had been written by 



344 THE CHARACTER OF 

his own hand. Under such circumstances, it was hardly 
worth his while to acquit himself of the charge of having 
never written for the newspapers, nor will he gain much 
credit for his assertions, when he was so anxious to induce 
his friends to write, and when it is well known that he 
placed at least as much confidence in his own talents as 
he did in those of any other man. 

The federalists viewed Mr. Jefferson as an unbeliever 
in Christianity ; and whatever might have been originally 
the state of his mind on the subject, that during his resi- 
dence in France, he had imbibed the loose sentiments of 
their revolutionists and infidel philosophers, and was there- 
fore an unfit man to be elected chief magistrate of a nation 
professedly Christian. To prove the justice of their esti- 
mate of his character, the following extracts from his let- 
ters are adduced. 

In the 3d volume of Mr. Jefferson's works, page 461, is 
a letter from him to Dr. Joseph Priestly, dated March 21, 
1804, of which the following is an extract : — 

" I learned some time ago that you were in Philadel- 
phia, but that it was only for a fortnight ; and I supposed 
you were gone. It was not till yesterday I received infor- 
mation that you were still there, had been very ill, but 
were on the recovery. I sincerely rejoice that you are so. 
Yours is one of the few lives precious to mankind, and for 
the continuance of which every thinking man is solicitous. 
Bigots may be an exception. What an effort of bigotry in 
politics and religion have we gone through. The barba- 
rians really flattered themselves they should be able to 
bring back the times of Vandalism, when ignorance put 
everything into the hands of power and priestcraft. All 
advances in science were proscribed as innovations. They 
pretended to praise and encourage education, but it was to 
be the education of our ancestors. We were to look back- 



THOTAS JEFFERSON. 345 

wards, not forwards, for improvement : the president him- 
self declaring in one of his answers to addresses, that we 
were never to expect to go beyond them in real science. 
This was the real ground of all the attacks on you : those 
who live by mystery and charlatanerie, fearing you would 
render them useless by simplifying the Christian philoso- 
phy, the most sublime and benevolent but most perverted 
system that ever shone on man, endeavored to crush your 
well earned and well deserved fame. But it was the Lil- 
liputians upon Gulliver. Our countrymen have recovered 
from the alarm into which art and industry had thrown 
them ; science and honesty are replaced on their high 
ground ; and you, as their great apostle, are on its pin- 
nacle." 

In the 506th page of the same volume, is a letter to doc- 
tor Benjamin Rush, dated April 21, 1S03, from which the 
following extract is taken : — 

" In some of the delightful conversations with you, in 
the evenings of 1798-99, and which served as an anodyne 
to the afflictions through which our country was then la- 
boring, the Christian religion was sometimes our topic : 
and I then promised you that, one day or other, I would 
give you my views of it. They are the result of a life of 
inquiry and reflection, and very different from that anli- 
Christian system imputed to me by those who know noth- 
ing of my opinions. To the corruptions of Christianity 
I am indeed opposed ; but not to the genuine precepts of 
Jesus himself. I am a Christian in the only sense in 
which he wished any one to be ; sincerely attached to his 
doctrines in preference to all others ; ascribing to himself 
every human excellence ; and believing he never claimed 
any other. At the short intervals since these conversa- 
tions, when I could justifiably abstract my mind from pub- 
lic afl!airs, the subject has been under contemplation. But 



346 THE CHARACTER OF 

the more I considered it, the more it expanded beyond the 
measure of either my time or information. In the mo- 
ment of my late departure from Monticello, I received from 
doctor Priestly his little treatise of ' Socrates and Jesus 
compared.' This being a section of the general view I 
had taken of the field, it became a subject of reflection 
while on the road and unoccupied otherwise. The result 
was to 'arrange in my mind a syllabus or outline of such 
an estimate of the comparative merits of Christianity as I 
wished to see executed by some one of m.ore leisure and 
information for the task than myself. This I now send 
you, as the only discharge of my promise I can probably 
ever execute. And in confiding it to you, I know it will 
not be exposed to the malignant perversions of those who 
make every word from me a text for new misrepresenta- 
tions and calumnies. I am, moreover, averse to the com- 
munication of my religious tenets to the public ; because it 
would countenance the presumption of those who have en- 
deavored to draw them before that tribunal, and to seduce 
public opinion to erect itself into that inquisition over the 
rights of conscience, which the laws have so justly pro- 
scribed. It behooves every man who values liberty of con- 
science, for himself, to resist invasions of it in the case of 
others ; or their case may, by change of circumstances, be- 
come his own. It behooves him, too, in his own case, to 
give no example of concession, betraying the common right 
of independent opinion, by answ^ering questions of faith, 
which the laws have left between God and himself. 

" Syllabus of an estimate of the merit of the doctrines of 
Jesus compared vnth those of others. 
" In a comparative view of the ethics of the enlightened 
nations of antiquity, of the Jews and of Jesus, no notice 
should be taken of the corruption of reason among the an- 
cients, to wit, the idolatry and superstition of the vulgar, 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 347 

nor of the corruptions of Christianity by the learned among 
its professors. 

" Let a just view be taken of the moral principles incul- 
cated by the most esteemed of the sects of ancient philoso- 
phy, or of their individuals ; particularly Pythagoras, Soc- 
rates, Epicurus, Cicero, Epictetus, Seneca, Antoninus. 

" I. Philosophers. 1. Their precepts related chiefly to 
ourselves, and the government of those passions which, 
unrestrained, would disturb the tranquillity of our minds. 
In this branch of philosophy they were reall}'- great. 

"2. In developing our duties to others, they were short 
and defective. They embraced, indeed, the circles of kin- 
dred and friends, and inculcated patriotism, or the love of 
our country in the aggregate, as a primary obligation: 
towards our neighbors and countrymen they taught justice, 
but scarcely viewed them as within the circle of benevo- 
lence. Still less have they inculcated peace, charity, and 
love to our fellow-men, or embraced with benevolence the 
whole family of mankind. 

" II. Jews. 1. Their system was deism ; that is, the be- 
lief of one only God. But their ideas of him and his at- 
tributes were degrading and injurious. 

" 2. Their ethics were not only imperfect, but often ir- 
reconcilable with the sound dictates of reason and morali- 
ty, as they respect intercourse with those around us ; and 
repulsive and anti-social as respecting other nations. They 
needed reformation, therefore, in an eminent degree. 

" IIL Jesus. In this state of things among the Jews, Je- 
sus appeared. His parentage was obscure ; his condition 
poor ; his education null ; his natural endowments great ; 
his life correct and innocent: he was meek, benevolent, 
patient, firm, disinterested, and of the sublimest eloquence, 

" The disadvantages under which his doctrines appear 
are remarkable. 



348 THE CHARACTER OF 

" 1. Like Socrates and Epictetus, he wrote nothing him- 
self. 

" 2. But he had not, like them, a Xenophon or an Ar- 
rian to write for him. I name not Plato, who only- used 
the name of Socrates to cover the whimsies of his own 
brain. On the contrary, all the learned of his country, en- 
trenched in his power and riches, w^ere opposed to him, 
lest his labors should undermine their advantages ; and the 
committing to writing his life and doctrines fell on unlet- 
tered and ignorant men, who wrote, too, from memory, 
and not till long after the transactions had passed. 

" 3. According to the ordinary fate of those who attempt 
to enlighten and reform mankind, he fell an early victim to 
the jealousy and combination of the altar and the throne, 
at about thirty-three years of age, his reason not having 
yet attained the maximum of its energy, nor the course of 
his preaching, which was but of three years at most, pre- 
sented occasions for developing a complete system of 
morals. 

" 4. Hence the doctrines which he really delivered were 
defective as a whole, and fragments of what he did deliver 
have come to us mutilated, misstated, and often unintelli- 
gible. 

" 5. They have been still more disfigured by the cor- 
ruptions of schismatizing followers, who have found an in- 
terest in sophisticating and perverting the simple doctrines 
he taught by engrafting on them the mysticisms of a Gre- 
cian sophist, frittering them into subtleties, and obscuring 
them with jargon, until they have caused good men to re- 
ject the whole in disgust, and to view Jesus himself as an 
impostor. 

" Notwithstanding these disadvantages, a system of mor- 
als is presented to us, which, if filled up in the style and 
spirit of the rich fragments he left us, would be the most 
perfect and sublime that has ever been taught by man. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 349 

" The question of his being a member of the Godhead, 
or in direct communication with it, claimed for him by 
some of his followers and denied by others, is foreign to 
the present view, which is merely an estimate of the intrin- 
sic merit of his doctrines. 

" 1. He corrected the deism of the Jews, confirming 
them in their belief of one only God, and giving them jusf- 
er notions of his attributes and government. 

" 2. His moral doctrines, relating to kindred and friends, 
were more pure and perfect than those of the most correct 
of the philosophers, and greatly more so than those of the 
Jews ; and they went far beyond both in inculcating uni- 
versal philanthropy, not only to kindred and friends, to 
neighbors and countrymen, but to all mankind, gathering 
all into one family under the bonds of love, charity, peace, 
common wants and common aids. A development of this 
head will evince the peculiar superiority of the system of 
Jesus over all others. 

" 3. The precepts of philosophy, and of the Hebrew 
code, laid hold of actions only. He pushed his scrutinies 
into the heart of man ; erected his tribunal in the region, 
of his thoughts, and purified the waters at the fountain- 
head. 

" 4. He taught, emphatically, the doctrine of a future state, 
which was either doubted or disbelieved by the Jews; and 
wielded it with efficacy, as an important incentive, supple- 
mentary to the other motives to moral conduct." 

In a letter to John Adams, dated August 22, 1813, (4th- 
vol. JeflTerson's works, page 204,) is the following pas- 
sage : — 

" Your approbation of my outline to Dr. Priestly is a 
great gratification to me ; and I very much suspect that if 
thinking men would have the courage to think for them- 
selves, and to speak what they think, it would be found 
30 



350 THE CHARACTER OF 

they do not differ in religious opinions as much as is sup- 
posed. I remember to have heard Dr. Priestly say, that 
if all England would candidly examine themselves, and 
confess, they would find that Unitarianism was really the 
religion of all : and I observe a bill is now depending in 
parliament for the relief of anti-Trinitarians. It is too 
late in the day for men of sincerity to pretend they believe 
in the Platonic mysticisms that three are one, and one is 
three ; and yet that the one is not three, and the three are 
not one : to divide mankind by a single letter into omoou- 
sians and omoiousians. But this constitutes the craft, the 
power, and the profit of the priests. Sweep away their 
gossamer fabrics of factitious religion, and they would 
catch no more flies. We should all then, like the Qua- 
kers, live without an order of priests, moralize for our- 
selves, follow the oracle of conscience, and say nothing 
about what no man can understand, nor therefore believe ; 
for I suppose belief to be the assent of the mind to an in- 
telligible proposition." 

The letter to William Short, dated April 13, 1820, from 
which the following extract is taken, will be found in the 
4th volume of Jefferson's works, page 320. 

" Your favor of March 27th is received, and, as you re- 
quest, a copy of the syllabus is now enclosed. It was ori- 
ginally written to Dr. Eush. On his death, fearing that 
the inquisition of the public might get hold of it, I asked 
the return of it from the family, which they kindly com- 
plied with. At the request of another friend, I had given 
him a copy. He lent it to his friend to read, who copied 
it, and in a few months it appeared in the Theological Mag- 
azine of London. Happily, that repository is scarcely 
known in this country ; and the syllabus, therefore, is still 
a secret, and in your hands I am sure it will continue so. 

*' Bpt while this syllabus is meant to place the charac- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 351 

ter of Jesus in its true light, as no impostor himself, but a 
great reformer of the Hebrew code of religion, it is not to 
be understood that I am with him in all his doctrines. I 
am a materialist; he takes the side of spiritualism: he 
preaches the efficacy of repentance towards forgiveness of 
sin ; I require a counterpoise of good works to redeem it, 
&;c. &c. It is the innocence of his character, the purity 
and sublimity of his moral precepts, the eloquence of his in- 
culcations, the beauty of the apologues in which he conveys 
them that I so much admire ; sometimes, indeed, needing 
indulgence to eastern hyperbolism. My eulogies, too, may 
be founded on a postulate which all may not be ready to 
grant. Among the sayings and discourses imputed to him 
by his biographers, 1 find many passages of fine imagina- 
tion, correct morality, and of the most lovely benevolence ; 
and others, again, of so much ignorance, so much absurdi- 
ty, so much untruth, charlatanism and imposture, as to 
pronounce it impossible that such contradictions should 
have proceeded from the same being. 1 separate, there- 
fore, the gold from the dross ; restore to him the former, 
and leave the latter to the stupidity of some, and roguery 
of others, of his disciples. Of this band of dupes and im- 
postors, Paul was the great Coryphceus and first corrupt- 
er of the doctrines of Jesus. These palpable interpola- 
tions and falsifications of his doctrines led me to try to sift 
them apart. I found the work obvious and easy, and that 
his part composed the most beautiful morsel of morality 
which has been given to us by man. The syllabus is 
therefore of his doctrine, not all of mine. I read them as 
I do those of other ancient and modern moralists, with a 
mixture of approbation and dissent." 

At the 325th page of the same volume, there is another 
letter to Mr. Short, from which the following extract is ta- 
ken : — 



352 THE CHARACTER OF 

" I owe you a letter for your favor of June the 29th, 
which was received in due time ; and there being no sub- 
ject of the day of particular interest, I will make this a 
supplement to mine of April the 13th. My aim in^ that 
was, to justify the character of Jesus against the fictions 
of his psuedo followers, which have exposed him to the 
inference of being an impostor. For if we could believe 
that he really countenanced the follies, the falsehoods, and 
the charlatanisms which his biographers father on him, 
and admit the misconstructions, interpolations, and theori- 
zations of the fathers of the early and the fanatics of the 
latter ages, the conclusion would be irresistible by every 
sound mind, that he was an impostor. I give no credit to 
their falsifications of his actions and doctrines, and to res- 
cue his character, the postulate in my letter asked only 
what is granted in reading every other historian. When 
Livy and Siculus, for example, tell us things which coin- 
cide with our experience of the order of nature, we credit 
them on their word, and place their narrations among the 
records of credible history. But when they tell us of 
calves speaking, of statues sweating blood, and other things 
against the course of nature, we reject these as fables not 
belonging to history. In like manner, when an historian, 
speaking of a character well known and established on 
satisfactory testimony, imputes to it things incompatible 
with that character, we reject them without hesitation, and 
assent to that only of which we have better evidence. I 
say, that this free exercise of reason is all I ask for the vin- 
dication of the character of Jesus. We find in the writ- 
ings of his biographers matter of two distinct descriptions. 
First, a ground work of vulgar ignorance, of things impos- 
sible, of superstitions, fanaticisms, and fabrications. Inter- 
mixed with these, again, are sublime ideas of the supreme 
Being, aphorisms and precepts of the purest morality and 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 353 

benevolence, sanctioned by a life of humility, innocence, 
and simplicity of manners, neglect of riches, absence of 
worldly ambition and honors, with an eloquence and per- 
suasiveness which have not been surpassed. These could 
not be inventions of the groveling authors who relate 
them. They are far beyond the powers of their feeble 
minds. They show that there was a character, the sub- 
ject of their history, vi^hose splendid conceptions were 
above all suspicion of being interpolations from their hands. 
Can we be at a loss in separating such materials, and as- 
scribing each to its genuine author? The difference is 
obvious to the eye and to the understanding, and we may 
read as we run to each his part ; and I will venture to affirm 
that he who, as I have done, will undertake to winnow 
this grain from its chaff, will find it not to require a mo- 
ment's consideration. The parts fall asunder of them- 
selves, as would those of an image of metal and clay. 

" There are, I acknowledge, passages not free from ob- 
jections, which we may with probability ascribe to Jesus 
himself; but claiming indulgence from the circumstances 
under which he acted. His object was the reformation of 
some articles in the religion of the Jews, as taught by Mo- 
ses. That sect had presented for the object of their wor- 
ship, a being of terrific character, cruel, vindictive, ca- 
pricious, and U7ijitst. Jesus, taking for his type the best 
qualities of the human head and heart, wisdom, justice, 
goodness, and adding to them power, ascribed all of these, 
but in infinite perfection, to the supreme Being, and form- 
ed him really worthy of their admiration. 

" Moses had either not believed in a future state of ex- 
istence, or had not thought it essential to be explicitly 
taught to his people. Jesus inculcated that doctrine with 
emphasis and precision. Moses had bound the Jews to 
many idle ceremonies, mummeries, and observances, of no 
30^ 



354 THE CHARACTER OF 

effect towards producing the social utilities which consti- 
tute the essence of virtue ; Jesus exposed their futility 
and insignificance. The one instilled into his people the 
most anti-social spirit towards other nations; the other 
preached philanthropy and universal charity and benevo- 
lence. The office of reformer of the superstitions of a 
nation is ever dangerous. Jesus had to walk on the per- 
ilous confines of reason, and religion : and a step to right 
or left might place him within the gripe of the priests of 
the superstition, a blood-thirsty race, as cruel and remorse- 
less as the being whom they represented as the family God 
of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, and the local God of 
Israel. They were constantly laying snares, too, to en- 
tangle him in the web of the law. He was justifiable, 
therefore, in avoiding these by evasions, by sophisms, by 
misconstructions, and misapplications of scraps of the 
prophets, and in defending himself with these their own 
weapons, as sufficient ad homines^ at least. That Jesus 
did not mean to impose himself on mankind as the son of 
God, physically speaking, I have been convinced by the 
^writings of men more learned than myself in that lore. 
iBut that he jnight comcientiously believe himself inspired 
from above, is very possible. The whole religion of the 
Jews, inculcated on him from his infancy, was founded in 
the divine inspiration. The fumes of the most disordered 
imaginations were recorded in their religious code, as spe- 
cial communications of the Deity; and as it could not but 
happen that, in the course of ages, events would now and 
then turn up to which some of these vague rhapsodies 
might be accommodated by the aid of allegories, figures, 
types, and other tricks upon words, they have not only 
preserved their credit with the Jews of all subsequent 
times, but are the foundation of much of the religions of 
those who have. schisraatized from them. Elevated by 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. ' 355 

the enthusiasm of a warm and pure heart, conscious of 
the high strains of an eloquence which had not been 
taught him, he might readily mistake the coruscations of 
his own fine genius for inspirations of a higher order. 
This belief carried, therefore, no more personal imputation 
than the belief of Socrates, that himself was under the 
care and admonitions of a guardian dasmon. And how 
many of our wisest men still believe in the reality of these 
inspirations, while perfectly sane on all other subjects. 
Excusing, therefore, on these considerations, those passa- 
ges in the gospels which seem to bear marks of weakness 
in Jesus, ascribing to him what alone is consistent with 
the great and pure character of which the same writings 
furnish proofs, and to their proper authors their own triv- 
ialities and imbecilities, I think myself authorized to con- 
clude the purity and disposition of his character, in opposi- 
tion to the impostures which those authors would fix upon 
him ; and that the postulate of my former letter is no more 
than is granted in all other historical works." 

Mr Jefferson introduces the subject of religion into sev- 
eral other letters, of a later date than that from which the 
preceding extracts are taken, which contain sentiments of 
a character somewhat similar to those already quoted ; but 
it is not necessary to copy them here. One additional let- 
ter only will be noticed. 

In the 4th volume of his works, page 363, is a letter to 
John Adams, dated April 11, 1823, (a little more than 
three years before his death) from which the following ex- 
tract is taken : — 

" The wishes expressed in your last favor, that I may 
continue in life and health, until I become a Calvinist, at 
least in his exclamation of ' Mon Dieu ! jusgu^ a quand V 
would make me immortal. I can never join Calvin in ad- 
dressing his God, He was indeed an atheist, which 1 can 



356 THE CHARACTER OF 

never be ; or rather his religion was doemonism. If ever 
man worshipped a false God he did. The being described 
in his five points is not the God whom you and I acknowl- 
edge and adore, the creator and benevolent governor of 
the world; but a doemon of malignant spirit. It would be 
more pardonable to believe in no God at all, than to blas- 
pheme by the atrocious attributes of Calvin. Indeed, I 
think that every Christian sect gives a great handle to 
atheism by their general dogma, that, without a revelation, 
there would not be sufficient proof of the being of a God. 
Now one sixth of mankind only are supposed to be Chris- 
tians : the other five-sixths then, who do not believe in the 
Jewish and Christian revelation, are without a knowledge 
of the existence of a God ! This gives completely a gain 
de cause to the disciples of Ocellus, Timaeus, Spinosa, Di- 
derot and D'Holbach. The argument which they rest on 
as triumphant and unanswerable is, that in every hypoth- 
esis of cosmogony, you must admit an eternal pre-exist- 
ence of something; and according to the rule of sound 
philosophy, you are never to employ two principles to solve 
a difficulty when one will suffice. They say, then, that it 
is more simple to believe at once in the eternal pre-exist- 
ence of the world as it is now going on, and may forever 
go on by the principle of reproduction which we see and 
witness, than to believe in the eternal pre-existence of an 
ulterior cause, or creator of the World, a being whom we 
see not and know not, of whose form, substance, and mode, 
or place of existence, or of action, no sense informs us, no 
power of the mind enables us to delineate or comprehend. 
On the contrary, I hold, (without appeal to revelation) that 
when we take a view of the universe, in its pants, general 
or particular, it is impossible for the human mind not to 
perceive and feel a conviction of design, consummate skill, 
and indefinite power in every atom of its composition. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 357 

The movements of the heavenly bodies, so exactly held in 
their course by the balance of centrifugal and centripetal 
forces ; the structure of our earth itself, with its distribution 
of lands, waters and atmosphere ; animal and vegetable 
bodies, examined in all their minutest panicles ; insects, 
mere atoms of life, yet as perfectly organized as man or 
mammoth ; the mineral substances, their generation and 
uses; it is impossible, I say, for the human mind not to 
believe, that there is in all this design, cause and effect, up 
to an ultimate cause, a fabricator of all things from matter 
and motion, their preserver and regulator while permitted 
to exist in their present forms, and their regenerator into 
new and other forms. We see, too, evident proofs of the 
necessity of a superintending power to maintain the uni- 
verse in its course and order. Stars, well know^n, have 
disappeared, new ones have come into view ; comets, in 
their incalculable courses, may run foul of suns and plan- 
ets, and require renovation under other laws ; certain races 
of animals are become extinct ; and were there no restor- 
ing power, all existences might extinguish successively, 
one by one, until all should be reduced to a shapeless chaos. 
So irresistible are these evidences of an intelligible and 
powerful agent, that, of the infinite numbers of men who 
have existed through all time, they have believed, in the 
proportion of a million at least to unit, in the hypothesis 
of an eternal pre-existence of a creator, rather than in that 
of a self-existent universe. Surely this unanimous senti- 
ment renders this more probable than that of the few in 
the other hypothesis — cause and effect. 

" Of the nature of this being we know nothing. Jesus 
tells us, that ' God is a spirit,' but without defining what a 
spirit is. Down to the third century, that it was still deem- 
ed material ; but of a lighter and subtler matter than our 
gross bodies. 



358 THE CHARACTER OF 

" Calvin's character of the supreme Being seems chiefly 
copied from that of the Jews. But the reformation of 
these blasphemous attributes, and substitution of those 
more worthy, pure and sublime, seems to have been the 
chief object of Jesus in his discourses to the Jews : and 
his doctrine of the cosmogony of the world is very clearly 
laid down in the three first verses of the first chapter of 
John, [quoting the passage in Greek.] Which, truly 
translated, means, ' In the beginning God existed, and rea- 
son (or mind) was with God, and that mind was God. 
This was in the beginning wiih God. All things were 
created by it, and without it was not one thing which was 
made.' Yet this text, so plainly declaring the doctrine of 
Jesus, that the world was created by the supreme intelli- 
gent Being, has been perverted by modern Christians to 
build up a second person of their tri-theism, by a mistrans- 
lation of the word logos. One of its legitimate meanings, 
indeed, is, *a word.' But in that sense it makes an un- 
meaning jargon : while the other meaning, ' reason,' equal- 
ly legitimate, explains rationally the eternal pre-existence 
of God, and his creation of the world. Knowing how in- 
comprehensible it was that ' a word,' the mere action or ar- 
ticulation of the organs of speech, could create a world, they 
undertook to make of this articulation a second pre-existing 
being, and ascribe to him, and not to God, the creation of 
the universe. The atheist here plumes himself on the 
uselessness of such a God, and the simpler hypothesis of 
a self-existent universe. The truth is, that the greatest 
enemies to the doctrines of Jesus are those calling them- 
selves the expositors of them, who have perverted them for 
the structure of a system of fancy absolutely incomprehen- 
sible, and without any foundation in his genuine words. 
And the day will come, when the mystical generation of 
Jesus, by the supreme Being as his father, in the womb of 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 359 

a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of 
Minerva in the brain of Jupiter. But we may hope that 
the dawn of reason and freedom of thought, in these Uni- 
ted States, will do away all this artificial scaffolding, and 
restore to us the primitive and genuine doctrines of this 
the most venerated reformer of human errors." 

From the general tenor and spirit of the letter to Dr. 
Priestly, one would naturally conclude that Mr. Jefferson 
would place himself in the ranks of Socinianism. This 
was the creed of that famous ecclesiastic ; and as he had 
reduced the principles of [his faith far below the Christian 
standard, Mr. Jefferson was probably induced to think fa- 
vorably of his system. But il has been seen, by his sub- 
sequent letters on this subject, that he adopted a plan much 
inferior in the scale of orthodoxy to that of Priestly. Tuck- 
er, in his life of Jefferson recently published, thinks bun- 
self authorized, by all that is known of Mr. Jefferson's 
system of faith, to say, that he was a Theist — that is, that 
he believed in a God. It is extremely difficult for the 
mind to conceive that any man, living under the full and 
clear light of Christianity, can be an atheist. Mr. Jeffer- 
son does frequently speak in such a manner as to lead the 
world to conclude that he acknowledged in his creed the 
existence of a supreme Being. But there are expressions 
in his writings, that give room at least for a doubt, whether 
he even reached the point of faith conceded to him by his 
biographer. It is very certain that he did not believe at 
all in the divine origin of Christianity, and, of course, not 
in the inspiration of the Scriptures, even of the New Tes- 
tament. In his letter to Dr. Rush, when speaking of the 
Saviour, he says, " His parentage was obscure ; his con- 
dition poor ; his education null ; his natural endowments 
great ; his life correct and innocent ; he was meek, benev- 
olent, patient, firm, disinterested, and of the subhmest el- 



360 THE CHARACTER OF 

oquence." This is placing him upon the ground of a 
mere man, possessed, indeed, of extraordinary qualities, 
but nothing above the rank of a human being — and he 
says that he believes he never claimed any other thati hu- 
man excellence. And he considers him unfortunate in hav- 
ing written none of his own doctrines, but depended upon 
others to perform that task ; and those were unlettered 
and ignorant men. This makes it perfectly clear, that Mr. 
Jefferson did not believe that " all Scripture was given by 
inspiration," as he places the New Testament upon the 
same footing with the works of Xenophen and Arrian, and 
of course other reputable works of profane authors. 

He considered the doctrines which Christ really deliver- 
ed defective, as a whole ; fragments only of which have 
come down to us, and those mutilated, mis-stated, and often 
unintelligible. That Christ might conscientiously be- 
lieve himself inspired, he thinks very possible ; and he 
asks, " how many of our wisest men still believe in the 
reality of these inspirations, while perfectly sane on all 
other subjects." On such considerations, he is willing to 
excuse " those passages in the gospels which seem to bear 
marks of weakness in Jesus, ascribing to him what alone 
is consistent with the great and pure character of which 
the same writings furnish proof, and to their proper authors 
their own trivialities and imbecilities." 

Mr. Jefferson says, the Saviour's doctrine respecting the 
creation of the world is clearly laid down in the three 
first verses of the first chapter of John, and says the Greek, 
when truly translated, means that ",In the beginning God 
existed, and reason or mind, was with God, and that mind 
was God. This was in the beginning with God. All 
things were created by it, and without it was not one thing 
which was made." If there is any meaning in this, 
it is that reason, or mind, which it would seem in his opin- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 361 

ion means the same thing, is God, and created the world. 
This text, he says, " so plainly declaring the doctrine of 
Jesus, that the world was created by the supreme intelli- 
gent Being, has been perverted by modern Christians to 
build a second person of their tri-lheism by a mistransla- 
tion of the word Logos. One of its legitimate meanings, 
indeed, is ' a word.' But in that sense, it makes an un- 
meaning jargon : while the other meaning, ' reason,' equal- 
ly legitimate, explains rationally the eternal pre-existence 
of God, and his creation of the world." If Mr. Jefferson 
had taken the trouble to read a little further in the same 
chapter, he would have found a difficulty in his system in 
following passage, which his translation of Logos 
would not have obviated — 

" He was in the world, and the world was made by 
him, and the world knew him not. 

" He came unto his own, and his own received him not.. 

" But as many as received him, to them gave he power 
to become the sons of God, even to them that believe oni 
his name. 

" Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the 
flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. 

" And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, 
and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotr- 
ten of the Father, full of grace and truth." 

According to Mr. JeflTerson's doctrine, whatever Logos 
means, whether word or reason or mind, if the passage, 
just quoted speaks the truth, that word or reason or mind 
was made flesh, and dwelt on the earth — that the world 
was made by him, but the world knew him not, and no 
criticism was ever more childish and contemptible, than 
his attempt to convey the idea that the " Word " spoken of 
by St. John, meant no more than the mere action or artic- 
ulation of the organs of speech. John meant to say that 
31 



362 THE CHARACTER OF 

the Log-OS which he named created the world, that all 
things were made by him, and without him was not any- 
thing made that was made, and that he was made Jlesh^ 
and dwelt among the Jews. If he believed that reason, or 
mind, was capable of doing all this, his feelings need not 
to have been alarmed at any degree of credulity with 
which he might be accused, by either Christians or infidels. 
The history of the creation in the Bible — the only one 
that does, or ever did exist — says, "And god said let 
THERE BE LIGHT : and there was lights If this account of 
that great event is to be credited — and all Christians be- 
lieve it — the world was created by the articulation of a 
very short sentence. And the truth of the story is after- 
wards reaffirmed in the scriptures in the concise but very 
emphatic passage, " He spake and it was done, He com' 
maiidedy and it stood fast.'''' However difficult it might 
have been for Mr. Jefferson to believe in the existence of 
omnipotence in any being, and that the exertion of such 
a power could create a world, he says, that without ap- 
pealing to revelation, " when we take a view of the uni- 
verse, in its parts, general or particular, it is impossible for 
the human mind not to perceive and feel a conviction of 
design, consummate skill, and indefinite power in every at- 
om of its composition." The Christian has no difficulty 
on this subject. He appeals to revelation, and believes it 
to be the work of an all-wise and an all-powerful God. 
But Mr. Jefferson, obviously unwilling to take the scrip- 
tures for authority, thinks reason, or mind, was God, and 
that one of those properties actually created the world. 
But which system requires the greatest stretch of creduli- 
ty — to believe that the world was created, and is governed 
by the exertion of reason or by the fiat of an all-wise and 
omnipotent Being ? By his theory, he falls into the gross 
absurdity of degrading the author of the creation to d 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 363 

mere inoperative and inefficient agent, and this, apparent- 
ly, for the sole purpose of getting rid of the scriptural ac- 
count of that marvelous but most interesting event. 

But, upon recurring to one of his letters to Mr. Adams, 
it will be found that his notions of the supreme Being fall 
much below the standard even of reason or mind. " Of 
the nature of this being," he says, " we know nothing. Je- 
sus tells us that 'God is a spirit,' but without defining 
what a spirit is. Down to the third century, that it was 
still deemed material ; but of a lighter and subtler matter 
than ouF gross bodies." In his letter to Mr. Short, he 
says, " it is not to be understood that I am with him (Je- 
sus) in all his doctrines. I am a materialist; he takes the 
side of spiritualism." 

As neither Mr Jefferson, nor any other person, ever 
saw or discovered a material supreme Being, and as he 
expressly disclaims the Christian's God, it would seem ne- 
cessarily to follow, that he believed in no God; or in oth- 
er words, that he was an atheist. 

That he was so, may be fairly inferred from the lan- 
guage he uses when speaking of the God of the Bible. 
This is not merely irreverent ; it is blasphemous. " Jesus," 
he says, " had to walk on the perilous confines of reason 
and religion, and a step to right or left, might place him 
within the gripe of the priests of the superstition, a blood- 
thirsty race, as cruel and remorseless as the being whom 
they represented as the family God of Abraham, of Isaac, 
and of Jacob, and the local God of Israel," — a being who, 
in another place, he describes as of a terrific character, 
cruel, vindictive, capricious and unjust. " I can never," 
says he in a letter to Mr. Adams, "join Calvin in address- 
ing his God. He was indeed an atheist, which I can nev- 
er be ; or rather his religion was daemonism. If ever man 
worshiped a false God, he did. The being described in 



364 THE CHARACTER OF 

his five points, is not the God whom you and I acknowl- 
edge and adore, the creator and benevolent governor of 
the world ; but a dcernon of a malignant spirit. It would 
be more pardonable to believe in no God at all than to 
blaspheme by the atrocious attributes of Calvin. Indeed, I 
think that every Christian sect gives a great handle to 
atheism by their general dogma, that, without a revelation, 
there would not be sufficient proof of the being of a God." 
It cannot be necessary to adopt any train of reasoning to 
show that a man who disbelieves the inspiration and di- 
vine authority of the Scriptures — who not only denies the 
divinity of the Saviour but reduces him to the grade of an 
uneducated, ignorant and erring man — who calls the God 
of Abraham, (the Jehovah of the Bible,) a cruel and re- 
morseless being — cannot be a Christian. Nor, after seeing 
this, can it excite any surprise to find him, when speaking of 
the Saviour, saying, " Among the sayings and discourses 
imputed to him by his biographers, I find many passages 
of fine imagination, correct morality, and the most lovely 
benevolence ; and others, again, of so much ignorance, so 
much absurdity, so much untruth, charlatanism and im- 
posture, as to pronounce it impossible that such contradic- 
tions should have proceeded from the same being. I sep- 
arate the gold from the dross, restore to him the former, 
and leave the latter to the stupidity of some, and roguery 
of others of his disciples. Of this band of dupes and im- 
postors, Paul was the great Corypkcsus and Jlrst corrupt- 
er of the doctrines of Jesus. ''^ 

* Since writing the foregoing account of Mr. Jefferson's reli- 
gious character, the following fact on that subject has been com- 
municated to the author by a gentleman of the highest respecta- 
"bility. 

A senator of the United States, having occasion to examine 
Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts— one of ihe books belong- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 365 

In the foregoing pages, will be found some of the rea- 
sons why the federalists were opposed to Mr. Jefferson 
as a candidate for the office of president of the United 
States. The number might easily have been enlarged ; 
but the list is numerous enough for the object which the 
author has in view. 

They considered him as originally opposed to the con- 
stitution of the United States — as indulging an undue and 
dangerous attachment to the principles and measures of 
the leaders of revolutionary France — they believed that, 
if once placed at the head of the government, he would 
make use of its patronage and power to promote his own 
personal interests, and to cherish and foster those of his 
party — that he entertained a deeply-rooted and inveterate 
hostility to an independent judiciary — that his senti- 
ments respecting the co-ordinate powers of the different 
branches of government, and especially of the executive 
and judicial, were unsound and dangerous — that he had 
imbibed the strange and absurd vagary, that one genera- 
tion of men could not, individually or collectively, do any 
act that would be obligatory upon their successors of an- 
other generation — they considered him as a mere partizan 

ing to Mr. Jefferson's library which was purchased by congress — 
came across the passage where the author of that work gives an 
account of the preaching of the celebrated Roger Williams to the 
Indians, in the course of which, he spoke to them of the " general 
resurrection;" upoa heariiig this his ignorant, uncivilized audi- 
ence gave a shout of unbehef in so strange a doctrine. On the 
margin opposite this account, in Mr. Jefferson's hand writing, it 
was written, " Indians are riot so stupid as to believe this." This was 
shown to a senator from Virginia, who instantly recognized the 
entry upon the margin to be in Mr. Jefferson's hand writing, and 
was about to erase it, when the gentleman told him he must return 
the volume to the library os he received it. Some time afterwards 
he saw it again, and the erasure had been made. 
31=^ 



366 THE CHARACTER OF 

in politics, who would sacrifice the welfare of his country 
to promote that of his political associates — that he would 
pay no regard to the provisions or principles of the consti- 
tution if they stood in the way between him and a favor- 
ite object — they believed him to be a secret, insiduous en- 
emy of Washington, and that he did every thing he dared 
to destroy his popularity, influence and character — they 
had no confidence in his talents as a statesman, but con- 
sidered him as a visionary theorist, governed by the ab- 
stract, dangerous and impracticable notions of revolution- 
ary France, instead of the sound, reasonable and practi- 
cal principles of experience and wisdom — that without the 
slightest foundation in truth, but for the sole purpose of 
jrendcring them unpopular and odious, and to promote his 
■own-interests, he accused the federalists of being monarch- 
ists, and of endeavoring to change our government into 
a monarchy founded upon a similar model with that of 
Great Britain — that he opposed the alien and sedition laws, 
not because they were unconstitutional, but for the purpose 
of courting popularity with foreigners residing in the coun- 
try, with the view of rendering the federalists unpopular. 
The federalists had no confidence in Mr. Jeflferon's veraci- 
ty — they considered him as habitually insincere and hyp- 
ocritical — they viewed his attacks upon the political char- 
acter of Hamilton as vindictive and malignant, and intend- 
ed to destroy the reputation of a man whom he viewed 
.as a rival — that he would descend to the low means and 
artifices of a practiced intriguer and demagogue to gain 
favor with the lowest classes of the community — that he 
was, as it respected religious belief, an infidel of the gross- 
est character, and bordering closely on atheism. The ev- 
idence in support of these various charges and allegations, 
is the best of which the nature of the case admits, for it is 
.drawn almost exclusively from his own writings. The 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 367 

only question will be, whether it supports the charges and 
allegations for which it is adduced. If it does not, the au- 
thor is incapable of weighing testimony. If it does, he 
has accomplished the object which he had in view; which 
was, to vindicate the character and policy of the federal- 
ists from aspersions as unjust and defamatory as were ever 
uttered — to rescue them, as individuals and as a politi- 
cal party from the reproaches cast upon them by Mr. Jef- 
ferson and his adherents ; and to show that they were dis- 
tinguished public benefactors, and virtuous, patriotic and 
disinterested friends of the constitution and liberties of 
their country. To their talents Mr. Jefferson himself, 
however unwillingly, was forced to bear abundant testimo- 
ny ; of course, their claim to them will not be denied or 
disputed by his admirers and followers. 

If his own character, as exhibited in this work, appears 
disadvantageously, it will be remembered that, however 
little flattering it would have been to his vanity, or howev- 
er mortifying it may be to the feelings of his friends or to 
the pride of those who afTect to consider him the boast 
and ornament of his country, the portrait is drawn by him- 
self, and therefore must be a likeness. At the same time, 
the fact will not be lost sight of, that the materials which 
have been made use of in the delineation of this charac- 
ter were prepared for this express purpose by Mr. Jefferson 
himself, when he had a full opportunity to review the 
events of a very long life, which was just then drawing 
near to its close, and to select from the great mass those, 
and those only, on which he wished to rest his claim for 
the applause and approbation of future generations. Ev- 
ery circumstance, therefore, recorded by him with the 
view of being afterwards transferred to his annals, must 
be considered as possessing, in his own estimation, much 
real importance, and as being designed to convey his fame 



368 THOMAS JErFERSON. 

to the latest period of time. Whatever opinions the pres- 
ent race of men may form of Mr. Jefferson's political and 
moral sentiments and principles as they are displayed in 
this work, it is certain that the exhibition is such as he in- 
tended should be prepared and presented to the world, as 
the foundation of his claim to pre-eminence over the dis- 
tinguished pBtriots and statesmen of his country. 



APPENDIX 



The following are extracts from a letter to general Washington 
from James Madison, dated April 16th, 1787. The reader will nat- 
urally be led to compare the suggestions in this letter, with those 
by general Hamilton, in his letter to colonel Pickering. 

" Having been lately led to revolve the subject which is to un- 
dergo the discussion of the convention, and formed in my mind 
some outlines of a new system, I take the liberty of submitting 
them without apology to your eye. 

" Conceiving that an individual independence of the states is to- 
tally irreconcilable with their aggregate sovereignty, and that a 
consolidation of the whole into one simple republic would be as in- 
expedient as it is unattainable, I have sought for some middle 
ground, which may at once support a due supremacy of the nation- 
al authority, and not exclude the local authorities wherever they 
can be subordinately useful. 

" I would propose as the groundwork, that a change be made in 
the principle of representation. According to the present form of 
the Union, in which the interv'-ention of the states is in all great 
cases necessary to effectuate the measures of congress, an equality 
of suffrage does not destroy the inequality of importance in the 
several members. No one will deny that Virginia and Massa- 
chusetts have more weight and influence, both within and without 
congress, than Delaware or Rhode Island. Under a system which 
would operate in many essential points without the intervention of 
the state legislatures, the case would be materially altered. A 
vote in the national councils from Delaware would then have the 
same effect and value as one from the largest state in the Union. 
I am ready to believe that such a change will not be attended with 
much difficulty ; a majority of the states, and those of the greatest 



370 APPENDIX. 

influence, will regard it as favorable to them. To the northern 
states it will be recommended by their present populousness ; to the 
southern, by their expected advantage in this respect. The less 
states must in every event yield to the predominant will. But the 
consideration which particularly urges a change in the representa- 
tion, is, that it will obviate the principal objections of the larger 
states to the necessary concessions of power. 

" I would propose next, that in addition to the present federal 
powers, the national government should be armed with positive 
and complete authority in all cases which require uniformity ; such 
as the regulation of trade, including the right of taxing both ex- 
ports and imports, the fixing the terms and forms of naturaliza- 
tion, (Sec. 

" Over and above this positive power, a negative in all cases nhat- 
soever on the legislative acts of the states, as heretofore exercised by the 
Mngly prerogative, appears to me to be absolutely necessary, and to be 
the least possible encroachment on the state jurisdictions. With- 
out this defensive power, every positive power that can be given 
on paper will be evaded and defeated. The states will continue to 
invade the national jurisdiction, to violate treaties and the law of 
nations, and to harass each other with rival and spiteful measures 
dictated by mistaken views of interest. Another happy effect of 
this prerogative would be its control over the internal vicissitudes 
of state policy, and the aggressions of interested majorities on the 
rights of minorities and of individuals. The great desideratum, 
which has not yet been found for republican governments, seems to 
be some disinterested and dispassionate umpire in disputes between 
different passions and interests in the states. The majority, who 
alone have the right of decision, have frequently an interest, real 
or supposed, in abusing it. In monarchies, the sovereign is more 
neutral to the interests and views of different parties ; but unfortu- 
nately he too often forms interests of his own, repugnant to those of 
the whole. Might not the national prerogative here suggested be 
found sufficiently disinterested for the decision of local questions of 
policy, whilst it would itself be sufficiently restrained from the pur- 
suit of interests adverse to those of the whole society ? There has 
not been any moment since the peace, at which the representatives 
of the Union would have given an assent to paper money or any 
other measure of a kindred nature. 

The national sucrem|icy ought also to be extended, as I conceive, 



ine national sucremac 

CR-. a1 



APPENDIX. 371 

to the judiciary departments. If those who are to expound and 
apply the laws, are connected by their interests and their oaths with 
the particular states wholly, and not with the Union, the participa- 
tion of the Union in the making of the laws may be possibly ren- 
dered unavailing." — Washington's Correspondence, by Sparks, 9th 
Volume, (Appendix.) 













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